


A Change of Fate

by dragonchallenge



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Archery, Brother-Sister Relationships, Epic Battles, Erebor, Escape, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Laughter, Prison, Rivendell | Imladris, Slow Burn, Swordfighting, Teasing, The Shire, Trolls, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-21 14:09:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 247,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13742595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonchallenge/pseuds/dragonchallenge
Summary: Leah Ambrose was never normal. By age sixteen she was a top fighter in the MMA. For a while she enjoyed it. But at twenty-one things started to change. She became quieter, withdrawn, now enduring dreams about strange woods and odd - albeit familiar - characters. When Leah has a little too much fun one night, she gets the offer of a lifetime. But is it more than she bargained for?





	1. Chapter One

The fist coming towards me was the first thing that I saw when I came back out of my own thoughts. I backed off a few steps and almost fell over my own feet. Pay attention, Leah. I could hear my instructor shouting the same thing after me. But I never had been one for focus. It was one of my many shortcomings. The only thing that kept me from being the best fighter in the class. I probably was, anyways, but my lack of focus was the reason that I currently had a split lip.

Dodging out of the way of Amber's punch I jumped back up and jabbed quickly to her throat. She gagged and I didn't let her look of panic slow me down. Swinging my leg across my torso I managed to kick Amber heavily in her stomach. The older girl dropped to her knees and began to spit up blood. Immediately I took a step back. I knew when enough was enough. And Amber was a friend. I wouldn't hurt her more than I needed to. My trainer called the fight and I nodded, stepping out of the ring.

Grabbing my towel, I strutted into the locker room feeling happy with my latest victory. It wasn't the most impressive fight that I had ever been in, but Amber was still relatively new to the fighting circle and I had been explicitly instructed to take it easy on her. I never lost a fight, ever. It was in my blood to never give up. I had been taught that unless I was dead I would get up and finish the fight. And even if I was dead, shake it off and get back up. It came from having parents who were both in their own sports.

They each had their specialties. My mother was a competitive gymnast. She had been quite good, too. While she no longer competed, she still trained kids in town. Her hands were scarred from tissue that had been peeled off time and time again after years on the bars. She had tried to get me into gymnastics when I was young. Despite the fact that I had enjoyed it, it simply hadn't been a passion. So I kept on with it for training while I tried to find something that interested me a little more.

My father had tried after her. He had been an all-star athlete in high school and college. He had done a number a different things when he was in school. Track and field, neither of which I liked. Although I had kept up with track. He had been a volleyball player, which I quickly learned was not for me after breaking my thumb from a serve. Neither basketball nor softball had taken. Baseball and rugby had both been busts. Ice skating had been completely useless and I had managed to give myself a bruised tailbone.

But I had really wanted to do something. With parents who had both been athletes in their own regard, I couldn't just sit around and do nothing. So I had decided to go out on a limb and try something of my own. Jujitsu and MMA had come not long after I had made my decision to try something new. And I had immediately fallen in love. I was only ten when I started and now I had been doing it for eleven years. Despite starting a little later in life, I was a quick learner and with help from my parents, I was a top-ranked fighter.

It was something fun. It was something fun that I could do when I was bored. It was something that I could do to relieve my stress a little bit when I was angry about something. Particularly being a college student. Between classes and training and my parents and my sister, life was exhausting. But at least I had something fun to do. Plus my work in the gymnasium was exactly the reason that I had a scholarship to the college that I went to.

The University of South Florida. Athletic scholarship. Nothing that spectacular. But it was enough to cover the expenses that I needed for an average student. Since we lived in the area, I didn't need anything to cover the dorm or food. I just lived at home. Which had benefits and drawbacks. I didn't need to pay for my food or even rent, but, of course, I lived with my parents. Which could be a serious pain in the ass, considering that there was no privacy in my house.

Which was ridiculous, seeing as there was only four of us. There was myself and my sister. A younger sister by five years. I was twenty-one and she was sixteen. Still a struggling teenager. Bringing boys and annoying teenage girls around all the time. But she was sixteen and I had once done the same thing. Sometimes I still did bring my friends and boyfriends around. My mother and father were in and out pretty frequently, but they cared enough to be normal parents. They cared enough to chat with me.

They could be real pains in the asses, but at least they cared about me. I had a number of friends whose parents barely knew what they were studying. I supposed that it was better that my parents at least cared about me to talk with me rather than completely ignoring me. Although I hadn't seen them in a while. I hadn't really seen anyone in a while. I had been keeping mostly silent so that I didn't have to chat with anyone. I wasn't much in the chatting mood these days.

"Hey."

A hand laid itself on my shoulder and I jerked around. I had been so lost in thought that I had almost forgotten that there were other people wandering around. I blushed softly as I turned back to see who it was. I probably should have remembered to lock the bathroom door, but I hadn't really been thinking about who would be walking around. Everyone in the building was someone that I trusted. So came with the territory of being a fighter.

But I really should have remembered to lock the door when I had come in for a shower. My towel was wrapped around my chest and my damp hair was falling limply in front of my face. And my clothes were... somewhere that wasn't right in front of me. Laughing awkwardly, I glanced over at Brian and grinned bashfully. His hands were lingering at the bottom of my towel, playing with the strings that were hanging off. His other hand traced up to my eyebrows and started brushing off the water droplets.

"Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Getting bashful, are we?" Brian asked.

"I didn't know that you were here," I said.

"Forget that we trained at the same gym?" Brian teased.

Forcing a smile on my face, I shook my head. "Of course not. Just... A little distracted today," I muttered.

"Ah. Let me distract you properly," Brian said lowly.

"Stop," I laughed, shoving him away from me. "The last thing that I need is to get kicked out of the gym because you can't keep it in your pants."

"They might like watching that," Brian teased.

"You know you're in the girl's locker room?" I asked.

"I'm aware. And we're alone in here. We might as well..."

"Get out."

"Alright, alright, I'll behave," Brian teased.

The two of us smiled at each other as Brian moved to the side and showed me my clothing that he had been hiding from me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the clothes, dropping my towel and changing. Brian let out a low whistle and I flipped him off. Not that he minded. It was just a part of our relationship. I threw on one of my tank tops that was in the pile before picking up my shorts and sliding them over my waist. Brian watched as I redid the soft makeup that I had been wearing and brushed out my wet hair.

As soon as I was done, I turned on my heels and glanced into the mirror. I looked as normal as I ever did, save the dark circles underneath my eyes. Proof that I hadn't been sleeping much. Something that my friends had all noticed. My friends, my parents, and my sister had all noticed that I had barely been sleeping over the past month or so. I wasn't sure why. Dreams, maybe? I knew that I was having crazy dreams but I could never remember what they were about.

The moment that I woke up I would forget everything that had been in them. The only thing that I could remember was the fact that they always took place in the woods. Woods and some people whom I could never remember. Just people who seemed to be like a part of my family. It made my head spin every morning as I tried to remember who they were and how they fit into my life. If it meant something more or if my literary fiction class was getting to me.

Shaking my hair out again, I glanced over myself. My muscles were straining against my skin for now. Strictly because I had just worked them out. I didn't have the appearance of a fighter. I wasn't that tall. Just about an inch over five feet. It was likely because both of my parents were short. My hair was long and blonde, as both of my parents had it. My muscles were prominent enough, but being a naturally small person meant that they didn't stand out that much. They mixed in with the subtle curves I had.

The only thing that was genuinely interesting about me were my eyes. They were a brilliant amber. In the darkness they appeared to be just a normal light brown. But in the sun they were so bright that they looked almost yellow. It was something that my mother and father always said was incredible about me. My mother had brown eyes, my father had green, and my sister had blue. We were an interesting little mix, with none of us knowing how our eyes came to be. It led to a number of adoption jokes.

But I was my parents' own child. We had the unfortunate video tapes to prove it. Tapes that I would be sure to burn before I got married. I yawned softly and cracked my back. My muscles were straining from the workout that I had been in all afternoon and I sighed, picking up my backpack. Unfortunately I would have to spend all night trying to finish my homework since I had spent so much time in the gym this afternoon. I should have gone back home but I didn't. Because I didn't like being there.

There was just something strange in the air lately. Not with everyone else. All of my friends and family seemed completely normal. It was just something about me. There was something wrong with me. What it was that was wrong with me, I would likely never know. Not until I started sleeping again and got back to myself. It was easy enough to tell that something was happening with me. My entire personality had changed in a matter of a few short weeks.

Not long ago it had been almost impossible to get me to shut up. I had always been one of the chattiest people that I knew. It was an area of contention when I first started fighting. They thought that I was too loud. But with some discipline I had learned when the right and the wrong time to talk was. Now things were very different. I hardly ever spoke to anyone without having them speak to me first. I was slowly becoming withdrawn from my friends and family.

It was obvious enough that everyone had noticed it. But they didn't say anything about it. Maybe because they thought that it would just make things even worse. Maybe it would. I wasn't sure. All I knew was that lately it felt that I didn't really fit. I wasn't sure why. I just knew that things were strange with me. I had debated on going to the doctors a number of times but I had a feeling that they would just send me to some psychologist would tell me to get on some medication that would keep me from training. Which was something that I couldn't afford.

"You were good out there," Brian said.

"That?" I asked dumbly. Brian nodded. I shrugged my shoulders, drying out my long hair. "That was nothing. Amber is still new. She just needs some time to learn."

I had known Amber for years but she had only just started training. "She's not half-bad for a beginner," Brian commented.

"I suppose," I muttered.

"You all right?" Brian asked.

Was I alright? No. That much I knew. There was something very, very, odd happening to me. But I couldn't just say that I was losing interest in everything. That would make me sound like I was suicidal or something like that. And I wasn't. I really wasn't. I was just... bored. Like there was something else that I should have been doing. Even fighting was getting a little old. Everything just felt so worn out. I wanted to try something different. Not that I knew what that would have been.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered, trying to force a smile on my face.

"You've been oddly quiet lately," Brian said, placing a concerned hand on my shoulder.

I gently pushed him off. "No, I haven't," I argued.

"Yes, you have. Come on, you used to be one of the loudest people that I knew," Brian argued.

Letting out a deep breath, I leaned back against the lockers as Brian sat on one of the benches. "I don't know. I guess life's just been feeling a little monotonous lately," I complained, running a hand through my hair.

"Welcome to higher education," Brian teased.

Yes, college, the epitome of schooling and the ultimate mix of misery and excitement. The late nights spent studying and the days spent in classes that I only wished that I could understand. I was a physical therapy major. Not that I really loved it. It was just something... to pass the time, I supposed. Just one more way that I really couldn't find my place in the world. College wasn't what I had thought that it would be. I just wasn't passionate.

If I was being completely honest, I wasn't passionate about anything anymore. And I didn't understand it. When I was a kid, I had loved playing all kinds of sports and fighting had been one of my favorite things to do. As much as I did still enjoy it, I didn't enjoy it as much as I once had. It had become something else that I did just out of habit. There was a time that I had loved school. Now I just did it because I knew that it was the next step in my life before a job, which I wasn't even close to being ready to think about.

That was something that I had never thought that I would need in my life. Passion. In some way or another. I had always thought that it was just something that dreamers wanted. But I had thought that at some point I would at least have some type of passion in something. I knew now that I really wanted passion for something, someone, but there wasn't anything. Not people, not school, not anything. But it still wasn't depression. It was something else.

It was almost like there was something that I was missing. Something that I had done once but had long since forgotten about. Not that I could understand what I even meant by that. It was one of the many things in my head that didn't make sense right now. And by the way that Brian was looking at me, I could tell that he was thinking the same thing. I smiled and stepped into him, letting my arms wind their way around his waist as my fingers hooked into his back pocket.

"Should we go do something?" I offered.

That definitely surprised him. "Sure. What do you want to do?" Brian asked.

What did I want to do? I couldn't figure that out for the life of me. Read, maybe. But that was something that I could only do on my own. See my sister? Probably. But she was a teenage girl and it was Friday night. She would have plans. Mom and Dad would be out on date night. There was nothing fun that I hadn't seen playing in the theaters. I really wanted to sleep, but I was sure that Brian was about ready to call my parents to put me on an involuntary psych evaluation if I skipped out on another Friday night.

"Oh, I don't know. Dinner?" I suggested.

Not the most original thought, but it was the only thing that I could think to say. "Sweet!" Amber chirped, walking into the locker room. She was holding a bloody towel under her nose. "We were thinking dinner, too."

"Because, of course, we're invited," Layla teased, jumping out on my other side.

"Right?" Jessica asked, following her.

"Of course, ladies. Shall we?" Brian offered.

Smiling softly, I nodded. In all honesty, I was glad that they were coming. Because I really didn't want to be alone with Brian tonight. Not that I was afraid of him. There was absolutely no point in being afraid of him. We were both fighters at our training gymnasium, but I could handle myself against him. We had learned that a long time ago. It was just because I didn't want to have another one of our deep talks where he tried to figure out what was wrong with me. Because I didn't know.

Brian was a sweet guy and I had used to enjoy our time together. For a long time just the two of us would go out together. Doing something or another. We used to be out all the time together. We would go out to the movies, some club, one of the bars, or just spend a night in getting to know each other. Which didn't mean that it was anything boring. Usually those were the most entertaining nights that we had together. But it had been a while since we had had one of those nights.

Ignoring the look that Brian was giving me - that inquisitive look that was wondering if I was okay - I glanced off towards where the girls were standing. My best friends. The three girls who had always been with me. The few people who had never questioned what was happening with me. They thought that it was just a little period of depression that I was going through. They had a feeling that I just needed some time to get back into the swing of things.

Amber had been one of my best friends for years. We had known each other since we were in the first grade, when she had moved to town. She had always made me laugh. She was one of the few people that knew everything about me. Every lie that I had ever told. Each time that I had snuck out of the house as a teenager, she had been the house that I had used as an excuse. And our age old joke to flirt with guys out at bars, going in the back to see if two blondes made a right.

Layla was two years older than us but acted like she was sixteen. It was one of the many reasons that she got along with my sister so well. We had met at the gym when I was thirteen and she was fifteen. It was surprising enough that the two of us had gotten along, considering that I was still in middle school and she was in high school. But our personalities had instantly clicked and we had become good friends afterwards. It was through our friendship that I had convinced Amber to join the gym.

Jessica had been the last of our little quartet to join. She was my age and had been at the gym since I had started there, but she had never spoken. Out of the four of us, she was always the most withdrawn. But eventually she had opened up to me after she had been badly beaten. I remembered seeing her on the floor, bloody and almost in tears. After that I had volunteered to train her myself. And, in time, she had gotten much better. Our friendship had gone slowly, but eventually we, too, had become inseparable.

The five of us headed over towards the diner that was just a few steps away from the gym. A perfect way to gain back all of the calories that we had just burned. No doubt would I pay for it in the morning, but the least that I could do was try and pretend that I was having some fun in life again. Try and pretend that I was doing more than going through the motions of each day before one of those days meant something again.

Maybe I am depressed. Maybe I do need to see someone.

But I was too stubborn to do something like that. It wasn't that I needed help. I wasn't going to do something. I wasn't going to kill myself. I was still far too fond of myself to do something like that. It was just a never-ending boredom. A wish that my life meant something more than just doing what everyone else was doing, as cliché as that sounded. I let out a soft breath and smiled at Brian, who had his arm thrown over my shoulders to keep me pressed together.

The strange thing about everything was that Brian should have been the one thing that was making me happy. That made me feel like I had at least something to amuse myself with. Because Brian and I had been dating for about six months. We had known each other for years but one night, after a few too many drinks out at one of the bars on campus, we had gotten a little too close and things had just changed. We had just kind of... gotten together. There was no need to say anything. We just were.

Neither one of us wanted to say anything to ruin it. We weren't really dating. We were, but we weren't. It didn't make sense to anyone but us. Although the girls seemed to understand. So did my sister, the one person who knew exactly how I was feeling about Brian. A good friend and someone who really did make me laugh. We had been friends for years and there had always been some little part of me that had a crush on him. But now that I had him...

What did I feel about him now? I wasn't really sure. I definitely wasn't in love with him and I knew that he wasn't in love with me either. It hadn't bothered either one of us. I wasn't sure why we were even still together. I supposed that it was more because we were out of habit than anything else. I really liked him a lot and I didn't want to lose him. That was probably the reason that neither one of us were willing to say anything about our situation. Because we were comfortable. Not passionate.

Perhaps one day that would all change. But that day wasn't today. It likely wouldn't be for a long time. Things would change at some point; that much I was sure of. Maybe it would have sounded a little stupid for me to say that I felt like I was destined for something more than the monotonous daily routine that I was going through. Wake up, go to classes, train, spend time with Brian, go home, do homework, fight my way through a restless sleep, repeat. Every day. No differentiation.

The five of us finally made our way into the small diner and took a seat in the back corner. The same seat that we had always taken. The same... Always the same... My head was starting to throb at my temples as I felt a headache coming on. Just the way that it always did when I started thinking too much about everything that was happening. So I laid back against the seat and closed my eyes. I could hear the others chattering back and forth with each other.

"Leah?" Brian asked after a beat, placing a hand on my thigh.

Glancing up, I saw that the others were staring at me. "Yeah?" I asked.

"You still in there?" Brian asked teasingly.

"Yeah. Sorry. Just a little distracted," I muttered.

"I don't think that I've seen one day lately that you haven't been distracted," Amber said, only somewhat accusingly.

They must have been conspiring with each other lately. I recognized the way that they were looking at each other. It was the way that we always did forming an intervention. "I know. I don't - I don't know what's going on with me," I muttered awkwardly.

"Maybe Brian needs to properly distract you," Jessica teased.

Everyone started laughing as Brian then went to poking fun at Jessica, who we all knew hadn't been with someone in a long time. But, to be fair, Brian and I hadn't spent any quality time together lately either. Sort of because I had been distracted and sort of because I just wasn't in the mood to be with Brian right now. I wasn't in the mood to be with anyone. Maybe I just needed to be with someone new. But I didn't need a man to make me feel complete.

No. Right now I need to beat the shit out of one of those punching bags. The girls continued to giggle as I rolled my eyes and sank back into the chair again. I let out a deep breath as I started stirring the sweet tea around. I could feel Brian gently running his fingers along my leg but I didn't look at him and he didn't push me to go back to his place. He just let us sit there as the five of us chatted back and forth for a while, talking and laughing like it was the good old days.

At least, they were. Amber was telling us all about her newest move that she had learned. Something that we had all perfected years ago, but was still relatively new to her. Jessica was telling us about her newest boyfriend. Not that he was really a boyfriend. More a friend that she would have until she had a new one in a few weeks. She was easily bored. Layla was telling us all about her nightmare little brothers. Twins, eight years old, and destructive beyond belief.

But I wasn't speaking to them. I was lost in my own little world. I was thinking about everything that had happened in my dreams last night. The woods that we were trekking through. The horses. The growling. The screams and shrieks. The clangs of weapons. The feel of a blade against skin. Dark hair floating through my vision. A heavy cloak. The feeling of icy water rushing past me. Flames burning. Falling deeper and deeper into some chasm. A deep and horrible voice...

"Leah!" Layla shouted.

"What?" I asked, surprised.

Layla exchanged a quick look with the rest of the people at the table. I narrowed my eyes. "What the hell is going on with you?" Layla asked sharply, momentarily forgetting her normally carefree nature.

"I don't -" My voice dropped off when I realized that I couldn't figure out what I wanted to say. "Nothing. I'm gonna head out, okay?" I said, getting up from the table.

Brian's hand wrapped around my wrist. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Home. I've gotta practice," I said, trying to find a way out of lingering here.

The memories of my dreams kept coming back and I was sick of having them. I never remembered much about what happened in them but I did remember little bits and pieces. Maybe I needed to go to the doctors and get them to give me some type of medication to help me sleep without dreams. There was always something a little haunting about them. Something that made them seem so realistic, even though I knew that they were anything but.

"We just left practice," Amber said disbelievingly.

"Yeah and you have to keep practicing if you want to stay on top," I argued weakly.

They exchanged another look. "Are you sure that you're okay? You haven't looked right for weeks," Jessica said, giving me a deeply concerned look.

"Thanks for that," I snapped, angrily tapping the ring on my thumb against the glass. "I'm fine, guys. I'm busy and I'm exhausted. I just need a good night's sleep and to refocus myself. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

That time Amber grabbed me before Brian could. "Hang on! No. Come on! Let's go out for the night," Amber said brightly, grabbing my hands and pulling me into her.

"No, I'm good," I said.

"Come on, Leah. One night," Brian pleaded, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"You know you want to!" Layla cheered.

"Mike will kill us if we come in tomorrow hungover," I grumbled.

Mike was our trainer and very strict about everything having to do with training. Not that anyone blamed him. That was his job, to make sure that we were staying on track. He watched what we were eating, how much we were drinking, and was always there to whip our asses back into shape. Coming in hungover was one of his biggest rules. If you threw up on the mats, it didn't matter how hungover you were. You would run suicides until you dropped and then be forced to clean your vomit up.

"We all know that you can hide a hangover better than anyone else," Layla teased.

We all laughed softly again. That was true. Just a few months ago I had been the biggest party animal, always an issue with Mike. "You know you want to," Amber said teasingly.

"And we're not letting it go until you come with us," Jessica said.

"Come on, Leah," Brian goaded.

"Well..." I trailed off, finding fewer and fewer reasons not to go out, other than the fact that I didn't want to.

"An hour. Just an hour!" Jessica begged.

Time for two beers... That would be my limit. "An hour tops," I promised.

Everyone at the table cheered and raised their glasses together in a clink. I rolled my eyes but couldn't help the little giggle that escaped my mouth. Something that I hadn't experienced in quite some time. Not that I was really excited to go out, but I did want to try and get myself back to normal. I missed the days that we could all go out and I didn't have to deal with my batshit insane dreams and permanent exhaustion and boredom.

As the others went back to chatting back and forth with each other, I leaned back in the chair, feeling just the slightest bit better about everything. They didn't bother me to chat more. They knew that it had been enough of a success, just getting me to decide to go out with them. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe I just needed to get out for a little while. Maybe I had spent too much time being cooped up and not doing anything. We all needed to be social from time to time.

Turning my phone over and over in my hands, I decided to pull it out and go through it. I hated phones. I hated modern technology like smartphones. Mostly because of social media. There was something about it that I despised. Exactly why I didn't have a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or anything like that. Just good old fashioned texting and the occasional boredom induced moments of surfing the Internet. After a few moments I opened my texts and decided to send one out to my mother.

I'm going out with some friends. Won't be back until late.

In all honesty, I wasn't really sure why I had decided to text her. Maybe it was just because I missed her. I didn't see her much these days. I hadn't seen her in a while. Mostly because she always seemed to be so busy. But her text came back quickly.

Have fun! See you tomorrow.

It was one of the fastest responses that I had ever gotten from her. My mother was a lawyer. Successful and very important. At least, she thought so. She was good at what she did, but that meant that I never really got a chance to see her. She tried to be around whenever she could and she always went out to my matches, but it always just seemed to be because she thought that she had to, not because she wanted to. At least she came. That was what I had always told myself.

At least I knew that she cared about me. She did text me whenever she got the chance and she frequently did question my love life and other things. It was enough to let me know that she at least tried to act interested in the things that I was interested in. But lately I had been forced to make things up. Because nothing interested me. Except for those stupid dreams about the woods... But that would just earn me a trip to the mental ward in the hospital.

Turning my phone over in my hands a few times, I briefly tuned back into the conversation long enough to exchange a few comments about some assignments that I had. Just enough to keep the others from getting concerned about my lack of involvement in the conversation. After giving a few half-hearted attempts at speaking, I stared back down at my phone. Batting the idea back and forth for a few minutes, I decided to text my father.

I'll be out tonight. Want to go for a run tomorrow?

Can't tomorrow. Sunday?

Sure. See you in the morning.

Goodnight, sweetheart.

It was something more than I had gotten from my mother. Not that I could be surprised. My father was a personal trainer. It kept him home a lot more than my mother was. I had more time with him. But he wasn't the emotionally supportive kind of father. He would rather take me out to the gun range or go on a run or bring me hunting when I had some type of stress to get out. It was surprisingly therapeutic. He didn't like to talk about my problems but I knew that he did love me.

Although it had been a while since I had been out with my father. The last time that we had been out together, just the two of us, was just a few weeks before my twenty-first birthday. He had taken me to the archery range back near my house and let me try out a few bows. It turned out that I wasn't half-bad. He had told me that with some practice I would be a natural. Of course that had been the last time that he had taken me. I never had gotten an answer about why we had stopped going.

Letting out another deep breath, I went back to my phone. The only friends that I really cared to speak to were standing right here. There was no one else that I felt the need to speak to. Just as I was about to put away my phone, it started to beep. I rolled my eyes and pulled it back out. It was my sister, one of the few people who would text me first. My sister was at that age that she could never actually pick up the phone to call someone or see them in person. She just liked her emoji's.

Her name was Harley. She had always been bold, just as I used to be, but she really wasn't into sports. She was the one person in our family who wasn't, making her the freak of the family, even though she was probably the most popular. She had always been more out and about when it came to the social scene. Ever since she was fourteen, when she had first started high school, she had been going out with her new friends and dating up a storm.

But she was a smart girl and a sweet one. Sometimes, at least. She knew how to be careful and she knew who she could and couldn't trust. It also helped that I was her sister. Everyone knew that it would have been foolish to screw with her because of me. Everyone knew who Harley's sister was. It made me not have to worry about her too much. I would always protect my little pain-in-the-ass sister. So I opened her text and read it over.

Hey! I won't be back 'til later.

Me either. Where are you going?

Movies, Mom.

Seeing anything fun?

They're playing a Hobbit triple-feature.

The Hobbit? She was seriously going to see The Hobbit? I hadn't even known that she liked those kinds of movies. She usually liked seeing the stupid movies that were based on dramatic and romance books. I raised my brows at her text and snorted. She was probably going just to see the few cute men in it. The brothers, particularly. They were how I had gotten her to see the first one when it had come out a few years ago. They must have been replaying it since nothing else interesting was out right now.

Didn't know that you were a nerd.

You like those movies.

That's true. But you don't.

No, but there are cute boys going tonight. And some of the actors in it are super-hot!

Well lick the screen for me.

Will do, Leah. What are you doing tonight?

Going out. They won't leave me alone.

Good! You've seemed super out of it lately.

Just haven't had a good night's sleep in a while. I'm thinking that I need to relax.

I'm sure that Brian can help you out.

I guess.

Don't tell me... Are you really thinking about ending it?

Make me feel a little worse about it, Hay.

What happened?

I don't know. I'm just not feeling it anymore. I think I need a major change in life. I'm thinking that it's time to just change things up. I've been doing the same things for so long.

Including Brian?

He's sweet but I really don't see us as anything more than friends.

Hint. End it before he gets any more attached.

You're right, as much as I hate to admit it.

I always am!

Whatever. I miss you. Let's do something tomorrow.

Won't you be hungover?

Are you kidding me? When I was sixteen we went on a day trip to Universal after I went out with my friends. Remember that? We were on the Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster and I was hungover and I didn't throw up! I can manage a night out at the mall.

I didn't know that you were hungover!

Yep. Could have had a future as an actress.

Not too late to change.

Yeah, right. Have fun at the movies, alright? I'll see you tomorrow.

Sure thing. Have a good night. Say hi to everyone for me.

Night, sis. Be safe.

You too.

That was the way the two of us had always been. Teasing and annoying. But we loved each other. We would protect each other until the death. I had thought about asking her to come out with us, but she wasn't old enough to go into the bar. I even thought about going to the movies, but there were too many woods in the Hobbit movies. I had a feeling that those would make my dreams even worse. So I passed and simply wished her fun out with her friends.

Hayley was far too smart for someone who was only sixteen. She was smarter than I had been at sixteen. I grinned and locked my phone again, slipping it into my back pocket, letting out a soft breath. She was a good kid. I missed her. I wanted to see her tomorrow. We used to be so close but age had forced us to grow apart. It would be good for the two of us to get out and about for a little while. Even if it was just to gossip about her stupid high school friends.

On one hand, speaking to Hayley had helped a little bit. She was always one of the few people who I wasn't afraid to tell anything to. I hadn't mentioned the dreams, but I was planning on telling her about that tomorrow. She would probably laugh at first, as she was her pain-in-the-ass little sixteen-year-old self. But I did love Hayley. I always would. And I would do anything for her. Including listening to her gossip about her newest boy crush. Probably some senior on the football team.

The five of us finished our meals together before getting up and heading to one of the many bars in town. It was one of the many favorite places of the people in college. The moment that we had arrived, I had almost instantly felt better. It had been a long time since I had been here, one of my favorite places. It was a college town so that meant that there were bars all around. But there was only one Irish pub that we had out at the beach. Live music, hazy and smoke-filled, with singing drunks.

For some reason, it felt like a place that I actually fit in. Not that it made any sense that I liked that kind of place. But I liked it much more than the loud bass and fist-pumping kids who littered the rest of the bars. I would have much rather had a place like this, filled with people of all ages and waitresses who didn't have to dress in their underwear just to earn themselves a decent tip. Plus the people were far less groping than they were at other bars. Unless you wanted it, of course.

A few hours passed while I was genuinely having a lot of fun. For the first time in a long time, I was enjoying myself. Taking shots with the girls and dancing with them and Brian, all of whom looked thrilled to see me back in the party atmosphere. I could feel the familiar haze in my brain from the alcohol consumption and I completely forgot everything that I had been planning to do; studying, practicing, and having no sleep. Well, the last one was accurate. But at least my slight depression was gone.

The five of us were all on the little dance floor that surrounded the bar as we went into one of the many line dances that we all knew. The line dances that none of us could really do, but we at least tried. I laughed as I stumbled back and forth along the floor, attempting to at least look somewhat normal. Trying to appear like I wasn't too drunk. But I had been in the drunk state enough to realize that I wasn't at all sober. Something that I probably needed.

Although I knew that I wasn't going to be able to go home tonight. There was no way that I could come stumbling back into the house. If there was one thing that my parents didn't like, it was me being drunk. They had always said that I was so much better than that. Destined for something more than being a simple drunk. I hadn't understood it at the time and, to be honest, I still didn't understand what they were talking about. Maybe it would be one of those reflection things.

Brian interrupted my thoughts, grabbing my waist and bringing me into a long kiss. I giggled softly as he pushed me back against the bar. Only breaking apart the kiss when I felt the sudden urge, I gently pushed Brian off of me. He was obviously a little drunk too as he stumbled back away from me. A middle-aged man just managed to catch him. Brian walked back up to me, giving me a questioning look as to why I had pushed him away.

"I'm going to the bathroom!" I shouted over the music. "I'll be right back."

"Hurry up. I'll be lonely without you," Brian teased.

"You ready to go home after this?" I asked.

It was the first time that either one of us had been like this with the other in a long time. "To your house with your parents?" Brian asked, laughing loudly.

Yeah, and they'll kill us both. "I meant yours," I said.

Brian gave me a small smile. "Now that I'm ready for," he said lowly.

Maybe I was an adult, by my parents would never want to hear about my relations with the opposite gender. I giggled softly as I stumbled towards the bathroom. It was a good thing that I hadn't worn heels. I would have collapsed a long time ago if I was wearing anything but the combat boots. I had definitely had way too much to drink. But I managed to find the bathroom and easily finish my business. When I came out of the stall, I realized that the other girls were out by the mirror.

"You look happier tonight than you've looked in a long time," Jessica commented.

"I guess I just needed to get out for a while," I admitted.

"We told you to just come out with us!" Layla cheered, probably about as drunk as I was.

"Well I didn't feel like it," I said, although the laughing and slurring of my words put a stopper in my argument.

Layla laughed and slung an arm over my shoulder. "Whatever. You used to be the biggest party girl of us," she said teasingly, practically holding herself up against me.

"I guess things changed," I giggled.

"Evidently not," Amber teased, helping me straighten up.

"Come on! More shots," Jessica said, pulling me with her.

We were about to leave when I gently pulled myself away from them. I needed just a second to recover. "You guys go. I'll be out there in a minute," I said, leaning against the sink.

"I'd hurry up. I think Brian's getting sick of waiting for his girl," Amber teased.

Softly giggling, I pushed the three girls away from me. They needed to be by themselves for a minute and I needed to recover. Maybe give myself a minute to try and sober up a little bit. There was no way that I could attempt to drive in the condition that I was or even walk. I was close enough to walk back to Brian's apartment, but the smarter part of me knew that it would be right to go home. Because I wanted to end things with Brian. Not sleep with him again or say it while I was drunk.

Jessica, Layla, and Amber giggled as they headed out of the bathroom, stumbling along and shouting back obscenities for me to hurry up. Standing over the sink, I grabbed onto the sides and turned on the water, keeping it as cold as I could take it. I pulled my hair back and splashed some water on my face. Sober up, Leah. You've got to go home and not make a ton of noise tonight. Tomorrow starts your new life. Tomorrow I would manage to get back to my old self. Or at least, a better version of my new self.

The moment that I looked back up from underneath the water, I took a paper towel and started running it over my face, accidentally taking off my makeup with it. I placed my hands back on the side of the sink to keep myself steady. The alcohol was definitely still getting to me. I had to keep my hands there to help keep myself upright as I began to feel myself swaying back and forth. I groaned softly and looked down as the water went down the drain.

Was I going to pass out? If I was, I needed to get to Amber. She could help get me back home and keep me safe from any of the stranger people out at the beach bars. I glanced up quickly into the mirror and felt myself slowly becoming sick. My stomach was roiling around as I leaned over again. I was going to be sick. I had never been sick at a bar before. It was always the next morning that I got sick, if at all. Maybe it was something that I had eaten. But I quickly realized that it was something more.

Because the moment that I looked back into the mirror I saw that it was much more than just being drunk. My own reflection in the mirror was distorted. Almost like I was looking at it from underwater, slowing morphing in front of my eyes. I was breathing heavily, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. Was I really that drunk? I had never seen this before. I made an attempt to call out for Brian or for someone that I knew to help me, but no one was around. I was alone.

All of a sudden I began to fall. This wasn't just me being drunk. It was worse than that. My heart was hammering in my chest. Had someone drugged me? That was what I imagined that this was. My last sane thought was that the floor was going to be disgusting. A strange thought, but it was the truth. The bathrooms in bars were notoriously disgusting. At least my clothes weren't that nice. But when I hit the ground I realized that it wasn't the tiled floor.

Instead it was grass. Grass... Where the hell had grass come from? My head was no longer spinning. Why was my head not spinning? There was no way that I had gotten over my drunkenness that fast. It was something else. Suddenly I felt so much better. But I hadn't thrown up the alcohol and whatever else was in my system. No. This was something else entirely. Had I passed out? Was this a dream? Had the bar been a dream? I didn't understand what had just happened.

Was there a chance that I had somehow made it outside before passing out? Not a chance. No. Of course not. Number one, we were out at the beach. There was sand and cement. Not grass. And there was the issue that now it was light out. It was nighttime before. Was it tomorrow? Or today, I supposed. Did someone get me home? What the hell happened? It couldn't have been my house. Because I wasn't in my neighborhood. The panic started to settle in.

Where am I? How did I get here?

Desperately wanting to be anywhere but here, wherever here was, I tried to stand up to find my way back, but I couldn't. I merely stumbled against the ground and coughed. I wasn't as sick as I had thought that I would be. In fact, I wasn't getting sick at all. They were more of dry-heaves from nerves rather than drinking too much. Suddenly I realized that I was wide awake and I felt like I hadn't drank at all, even though I should have been plastered.

Slowly I glanced up to try and calm myself down. There was no point in panicking. That wouldn't help. The only thing that would help was to try and be level-headed about this whole thing. As I glanced up and looked around I realized that I was in a place that looked vaguely familiar. It was like I was in a place that I had seen before. Somewhere in a far-off corner of my mind. Slowly and nervously I looked around at all of the strange people in the strange place.

Immediately I realized that I looked so much different than all of the other people. For one, I was a number taller than they were, which was strange, considering that I wasn't that tall. I also wasn't wearing a dress and apron like the other women were wearing. I was in a pair of tight jeans, worn combat boots, and a low-cut tank top. And my slightly curly hair from air drying earlier was hanging around my shoulders rather than being pulled back by a bandana.

Now my head was spinning again, but this time it wasn't from alcohol consumption. This time it was from something much worse. You wanted something different. But I didn't want something to happen that was this different. I stumbled backwards, hitting the grass again. Because I knew exactly where I was. I knew, and so did most other people in the world. Harley would fucking lose her mind if she could see me right now. Because I was in a place that I had dreamed so many times of being.

This was the place that I had been dreaming of so often over the past few months. It all made sense now. These were the woods that I had been dreaming about. This apparently was why I had been dreaming about the woods. Because I was supposed to end up here. Apparently in another very realistic dream while I was sobering up. This was why those woods had looked so familiar. Because I had seen them in a number of movies that I had always liked before.

No part of me could tell whether or not I was terrified or fascinated. Because I finally realized where I was. Not by my house, not somewhere near the bar, nowhere near any place that I had been before. I was in Hobbiton. The place where Bilbo Baggins lived in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I must have been even more hammered than I had thought that I was. There was no way that I would imagine something like this. Unless someone had drugged me. Someone must have actually drugged me.

"Miss? Are you alright?" an eerily familiar voice called.

No - fucking - way. Fearfully I whirled around. Maybe not fearfully, but there was some emotion that I couldn't quite place. It was hysterical, whatever it was. Because, right behind me, was Gandalf. Grey-robed, pointy-hat, wooden-staff bearing Gandalf. Ian McKellen, who evidently didn't know that he was Ian McKellen. At least, in my world he was. Leaning back against the grass I bit my tongue because I was about to burst out laughing. Because this dream was far too realistic.

"No. No. Gandalf is not real. The Hobbit is not real," I said hysterically, weakly stumbling to my feet. "Send me back. Puking in the toilet or a back alley or half-dead at home... I want to go back."

I wasn't sure how a dream Gandalf could help me, but I needed to get back to my drunken night out. "I think that we should talk, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said.

"How the hell do you know my name?" I asked desperately.

Because it's a dream, idiot. Gandalf smiled at me. "I've been expecting you," he said.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

Gandalf laughed softly. "This is not a dream, Miss Ambrose. Welcome to Hobbiton."


	2. Chapter Two

When I was fourteen I was standing in the octagon with another girl. A transfer to the gym, someone who hadn't lasted that long. But she had lasted long enough to rear back and send a kick straight into my chest. I had flown back against the floor and hit face-first. The pain hadn't come until later. It was just a stunned silence at first. Until I started breathlessly laughing. Louder and louder with each passing moment. Everyone had thought that something was wrong with me, but it was just because I was stunned.

That was exactly how I felt right now. Stunned and hysterical. Definitely still drunk. So I threw my head back towards the beaming sun and started laughing hysterically, just as I had done after that kick. I couldn't believe that I was so drunk that I was dreaming that I had landed myself in Hobbiton with Gandalf checking to see if I was okay. I was actually dreaming of the place in the movie that my sister had told me that she was going to see tonight.

This was absolutely a dream. There was no way that it wasn't a dream. Hobbiton was not a real place. It was something that J.R.R. Tolkien had made up back in 1937 when he had published The Hobbit. It was not a real place. The only real place that someone could visit that was even close to Hobbiton was the set that was in... Ireland, maybe? I wasn't sure. It didn't matter, I supposed. But I knew that I wasn't there. Just a few seconds ago I had been in Tampa, Florida.

"No. Send me back!" I barked. Then I realized that I hadn't actually gone anywhere. It was just a dream. How do I wake myself up? "Or... I don't know. At least let me sleep in peace until my hangover is gone."

"Miss Ambrose, I would like you to listen," Gandalf said.

"No. Absolutely not. Send me back home, right now. This is my dream, right?" I asked. Gandalf merely stared at me for a moment before finally nodding weakly. "So that means that I'm at least somewhat in control. Send me back home."

In the back of my mind I knew that it was just a completely realistic dream. I would be fine in a matter of minutes. Once some of the alcohol had left my system and I had slept off what was sure to be a killer hangover. But right now I was flipped out. I couldn't force myself to calm down. Gandalf reached out a hand for me to pick myself up with, but I really didn't want to touch my dream Gandalf. I just wanted to get out of here. So I pushed myself back to my feet without assistance and looked down at myself.

Any little hint that I could get about how I had gotten here would be useful. But there was nothing. My clothes weren't torn and there was nothing indicating that there had been a violent brawl or anything of the likes. My pants had a few grass stains on the knees and there smelled like there was some alcohol that had been spilled on my tank top, but that was it. Otherwise the only difference was that my hair was now completely down and falling around my shoulders.

Slowly I brushed my hair back out of my eyes, trying to calm myself down again. "Miss Ambrose, I'm afraid that the way home is impossible," Gandalf said regretfully.

Absolutely not. "Come on, just pull some Wizard of Oz trick. Click the red slippers together! Send me back home!" I barked irritably.

"I'm afraid that the way home is now lost," Gandalf said slowly.

My jaws flapped together for a few moments. I was from Florida. I was born in Orlando. I had been to Universal and Disney a number of times. I knew exactly where he was getting that line from! That was what told me that it had to have been a dream. I had seen Poseidon's Fury a number of times. That was one of the most famous lines from the show. So now I was imagining that the goddess of the sea was speaking to me through Gandalf. Someone really fucked me up.

"Don't quote a theme park ride at me! I know where that's from!" I shouted.

If my words had affected Gandalf at all, he didn't show it. "I fear that sending you back home is out of my power," Gandalf said, walking in circles around me.

"No," I said, laughing softly. "Because this is just a -"

"It's not a dream, Miss Ambrose. You are here, in Middle Earth, in the Shire," Gandalf interrupted.

"No. I'm drunk, someone probably roofied me, and I'm going to wake up in some box because someone kidnapped me," I said, the thought of being drugged and in a box in the back of some psychopath's van actually calming me. "Which would actually be an improvement to my day."

Gandalf puffed on his little pipe for a moment. "You wonder why you've lost motivation, desire, and strength in your everyday life," He commented, rather than asked.

"If this is my way of having a sit-down talk with myself, I really do need to see a psychologist," I said, pushing my hair back.

"You do not belong in that world," Gandalf said.

Now what was I supposed to say to that? A few minutes passed that I tried to come up with something to say. But nothing was coming out of my mouth. No matter how hard I tried, nothing came out. Because I couldn't think of something to say to that. I apparently didn't belong in my world. My world where I had a family, school, and a hobby that I was passionate about. I had friends and a boyfriend - not that I was really that interested in him. How was that a place that I didn't belong in?

"Excuse me?" I asked dumbly.

"You do not belong in that version of the worlds. That realm. The realm of mortals." My head was spinning even worse than it had been when I had been on-my-ass drunk. "You belong in Middle Earth. This is your home. You've only now started to remember," Gandalf said, motioning around us.

"Remember?" I parroted.

"Your life. Your real life," Gandalf said.

My real life... What was my real life? I had my mother and father, who each had their perfect jobs and perfect lives. I lived in a nice house with my parents to make sure that I didn't have to pay for dorm and food. I was a senior at the University of South Florida in physical therapy. My sister's name was Harley and she was sixteen. I was an MMA fighter and pretty talented. My boyfriend's name was Brian. Amber, Layla, and Jessica were my best friends. That was my real life. Not this.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"You were brought here by the Valar," Gandalf explained, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

I'm a little too busy to read up on Lord of the Rings folklore! "And those are?" I asked irritably.

"They are the gods or who are subordinate to the one God; they are the most powerful of the Ainur who chose to go into the World and complete its material development after its form was determined by the Music of the Ainur," Gandalf said.

This is worse than being drunk. The words barely sounded English. "What?" I asked.

"They are the creators. They created life in Middle Earth. They created you," Gandalf said.

Another hysterical laugh escaped my mouth. That was not the way that life worked. "N - No. My mother and father back on real Earth created me. That's how it works. Biology 101," I said sharply.

"They were your protectors," Gandalf said.

My protectors... They were my parents. My mother and father. Parents were protectors. That was the way that it worked. They protected their offspring. Of course they did. That was the whole point of having parents. That was the way that it worked. For a moment I just stared at Gandalf, waiting to see what would happen. I counted to ten, waiting to reappear in the bathroom of the bar, but I never did. Gandalf was waiting for me to say something. Suddenly my anger got the best of me.

"Tell me how this works. I am in the bathroom of some trashy bar, laughing with my friends for the first time in months, completely shit-faced, when all of a sudden I start falling. When I hit the ground I'm in Middle Earth. How does that work?" I asked, knowing that I sounded like a complete lunatic.

"I fear that I do not have all of your answers. The Valar work in mysterious ways," Gandalf said.

My jaws set together. "You do not get to give me the 'work in mysterious ways' bullshit," I snapped, trying to think of every single movie mentor that had said something like that. "Tell me the truth."

"That's not something that I can do. I do not know the truth and I do not have the genuine knowledge to give you the truth," Gandalf said earnestly.

But that didn't change how angry I was about this. I set my arms on my hips angrily. "So I'm just supposed to take your word for it that I'm supposed to be here?" I asked.

"There is someone who knows the truth," Gandalf said.

Play along and you might wake up. "And they are?" I asked.

"Lord Elrond," Gandalf said. Of course. I'll have to actually go with the company. "Of -"

"Rivendell, "I interrupted. "Yeah. I know that one. I've seen The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings movies. And I've read the books." The moment that I said it, I realized something. "I know that it takes weeks for the company to get there. I know that they get chased by Orcs on the way! I'm not getting chased by an Orc! I'm going home!"

"You are home," Gandalf argued.

Scoffing loudly, I shook my head, now pacing nervously. "This is not my home. My home is in Tampa, Florida. The United States. North America. Earth! Real Earth! Not this... fictional place," I said dumbly, throwing my arms around.

"You are here. That makes it real, doesn't it?" Gandalf asked.

Apparently I'm quite sassy in my sleep. "This is a dream," I said.

Gandalf chuckled under his breath and shook his head. "This is not a dream. You have felt for months, your entire life, really, that you were destined for something more," Gandalf said.

"Who doesn't feel that way at some point or another?" I asked, arguing with Gandalf and my inner thoughts.

"There is a difference. You are destined for greatness," Gandalf said.

Now I was getting the old destined-for-greatness speech. Wasn't that from one of the Spider-Man movies or something like that? I found myself wishing that I had paid a little more attention to movies and books rather than constantly training. Maybe things would have been a little easier right now. But I had read both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings a number of years ago. I had seen the movies. I knew exactly how this story ended, seeing as I had enjoyed them right up until the end.

"This is a story. A kid's story. I know the way that this ends! Everyone knows the way that this ends!" I shouted. There was a little guilty look on his face. That was when it dawned on me. "You know the way that this ends. Right?"

"I'm aware of what happens," Gandalf admitted slowly.

He knew... He actually knew what happened. He knew that Thorin, Fili, and Kili died at the Battle of the Five Armies. He knew that the line of Durin would be wiped out come the final battle. Maybe he didn't know the details. From what I could remember I knew that he couldn't have known the details - as they had run into so many traps - but he had to have known the way that this entire thing ended. Killing them... Those three good men. My stomach roiled with disgust.

"And you're gonna send them anyways?" I snarled.

"I do not know the details. Just the grand scheme," Gandalf said.

"So you don't know who lives and dies?" I asked carefully.

At least I hadn't said anything yet. Gandalf shook his head. "No. And you cannot tell me," he advised.

"Why not? You could save them!" I shouted.

He could save those three men. My favorite characters. "Because that is not my role. My role is to bring the dwarves and Bilbo Baggins to Erebor to free the mountain from Smaug," Gandalf explained.

That was the worst explanation that I had ever heard. "So I have a roll in this?" I asked slowly.

"Yes. We all have a role in this," Gandalf said.

"What is mine?" I asked.

"To protect the company," Gandalf said.

The way that he had said it was like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe it was obvious to him. But it definitely wasn't obvious to me. Because no one had ever told me that my job was to protect fictional characters. No one had ever told me that I was supposed to save three men who had died at the hands of Orcs. The big, bad, villains who wielded shields and swords and maces and axes. And what could I do? Punch really hard.

Unable to stop myself, I threw back my head and started to laugh hysterically. This was so funny that I couldn't even believe that it was real. Which it wasn't, but I couldn't believe that I had even managed to dream it up. Maybe there was a chance that I was still a little drunk, as my laughter didn't stop. Someone had definitely drugged me with probably some new type of synthetic acid or something terrible like that. Whatever it was, I really didn't recommend it.

"You think that I can protect this company? I'm twenty-one years old! I can't do that! I can barely take care of myself. I - I don't know how to cook, I barely can do my own laundry with a fucking machine, and I - I love hiking but not for over a year!" I shouted, remembering how long it had taken them to get to Erebor.

"Calm down, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said, sensing my urgency.

"Let me go back home," I begged.

Right over my eyebrow was pounding. A stress headache. This dream was doing far too much to my head. "I cannot send you back home. It is out of my power," Gandalf explained softly.

"Well you can't have me protecting them. That's the last thing that I can do. I have no idea how to protect a company full of dwarves. They're fighters. They can protect themselves," I said.

After seeing the movies, I was sure that they could manage to protect themselves just fine. They had done so well enough, up until the end. The ending had only been because Fili had split up with the others and had gotten caught, Kili had sacrificed himself for Tauriel, and Thorin had stupidly gotten into a fight with Azog all by himself. It might have gone a little better if they had been a little smarter about it. Maybe I could give Gandalf my advice and be on my way.

"Obviously the Valar do not believe that they can. They believe that the company needs you," Gandalf said.

"They don't. They've already gotten through this mission. Just come back to my home. There have been books and movies about this adventure," I said, thinking about how popular the movies had been.

"But it hasn't happened here yet. Something can be changed," Gandalf said.

"Why would they even want something to change?" I asked.

"Because something happens. Something that occurs on this trip alters the future in a very dangerous manner. The Valar believe that you can change whatever event this is that happens in the future," Gandalf explained.

What could I change? Absolutely nothing. Perhaps I could let Gandalf know not to trust Saruman. Maybe I could tell him that he would become... what was he? A servant to Sauron. All over again I wished that I had paid more attention to the movies or read the books a little closer. Was there a chance that one little thing that I changed during the events of The Hobbit would completely change the events of The Lord of the Rings? Maybe stop the war from happening and Saruman from taking over.

"What am I supposed to do?" I whispered.

"I do not know, but you will figure it out. Lord Elrond will help. I will help," Gandalf said.

"Why did the Valar pick me?" I asked, feeling insane for even playing into this.

"Are you aware of what your name means?" Gandalf asked.

"No," I said. I had never been interested in doing one of those translation things.

"Leah is literally translated into ruler. Ambrose means immortal," Gandalf translated.

Somewhat rudely, I rolled my eyes. Kids were always doing that to think that they were meant for something special. "Immortal ruler. So what? Everyone can translate their name into something cool if they search the Internet hard enough." I noticed Gandalf give me a strange look. "Internet. It's a... doesn't matter. Really easily accessible book," I tried to explain as simply as possible.

"You are meant for something great, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said gently.

"Being a professional fighter back on Earth, maybe," I muttered.

"I thought that you wanted something more," Gandalf said.

Unfortunately he was making a good point. "I guess it was one of those 'grass is always greener on the other side' kind of things. I want to go back home," I said, feeling suddenly overwhelmed and very weak. I wanted to be off of this trip. "I - I want to see my mother and father and... Harley. I want to see my sister."

"You will see them again," Gandalf said comfortingly.

"That's not vague at all," I muttered.

When was I going to see them again? When I woke up from this trip? "Not to fear, Miss Ambrose. Things will get better. Easier. You must just find your place in the world," Gandalf said.

"I know my place!" I shouted, tears rising in my eyes. "It's at the University of South Florida in the Physical Therapy program. I'm an MMA fighter at the national level. And I..."

My voice trailed off when I came to that awful conclusion. The one that I was hoping that I would never have to come to. Because I genuinely didn't fit in. Not in my own world. MMA was my favorite thing to do, but even that didn't always feel right. Sometimes it felt like it was just something that I was doing to pass the time. Something that I was doing to try and make my parents happy. It had always been something that I had done just because I wanted to do something to try and make friends.

My friends were wonderful. I truly loved them. They were fantastic people. But I had always known that I was the odd woman out. I just... wasn't like them. School didn't feel right either. I never felt like I genuinely wanted to be there. I was just doing it because it was the plan that my parents had laid out for me. The only reason that I was doing physical therapy was because I was good at it. But I didn't like it. Not the way that I should have liked my major.

The only thing that I genuinely loved was my family. But even there I hadn't ever felt like I belonged. I loved them to death. I would do anything possible to save them. But I wasn't like them. They were normal. They liked movies and shopping and chatting with each other. I liked fighting in the octagon and shooting out at the gun range and... That was about all that I liked. I always just pretended to be normal and pretend to fit in with my family. It had always worked, I just hadn't been thrilled with it.

"Don't truly believe that you belong," Gandalf finished my previous thought softly.

"Maybe not. But I don't belong here," I whined.

"How will know if you don't even try?" Gandalf offered.

"Oh, good. It's like my own personal Yoda," I grumbled. Gandalf gave me another strange look. "Pop culture reference." Another strange look. I definitely couldn't pretend to be from Middle Earth. "Right... You wouldn't know what pop culture is. I guess the first thing is teaching me how to speak like... old English."

Gandalf gave me a small smile. "We can work on it," he said.

Letting out a deep breath, I ran my hands through my hair again. "You really aren't going to take me back home? Or you aren't capable of it?" I asked.

This place felt so real. What kind of drug had someone given me? "I truly am not," Gandalf said softly.

None of this made sense. What kind of drug allowed me to realize that I had actually been drugged? Nothing like acid or... Well I wasn't much of a drug fanatic. I didn't know what they could have given me. Alcohol definitely couldn't have done something like this. And there was no way that this was real. Because I didn't live in a fantasy novel. But I supposed that until I woke up either in the hospital with a stomach pump attached or back in that grimy bathroom, I would just have to play along.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked softly.

"Of course," Gandalf said.

"I've never liked the ending of The Hobbit. Without spoiling it... I just don't like the way that it ends," I said awkwardly. Evidently I couldn't let him know about the deaths in the story. "But you believe that I can change things?"

That was the big question. Could I save them? "I believe that the Valar do not instigate changes such as these without reason. You are going to change things. I believe that you can," Gandalf said reassuringly.

"You really want me to join this quest?" I asked.

"I believe that you have been demanded to join this quest," Gandalf said, chuckling softly.

"When I wanted something bigger I meant like a new job. Or maybe a change in major. Not a new planet," I muttered irritably.

"Universe. We are in the same one. There is just something like a... curtain separating our two worlds," Gandalf explained.

"And I just happened to wander through," I growled.

"You were pulled through. For a bigger purpose," Gandalf said.

"Okay. So let's say for one second in the grand scheme of things that I'm not batshit insane. That this is just a hyper-realistic dream. I'll treat it as real until I wake up, okay?" I offered.

Maybe acting like this was all real was my ticket out. "We can work with that," Gandalf conceded.

"My whole goal is to... save the member or members of the company that die? The people who die? To change history to the way that it's supposed to be?" I asked.

"Lord Elrond will know more. But I believe that is the reason that you were called back to Middle Earth," Gandalf said.

I didn't miss the way that he said back. "O - Okay. Fine. But I'm supposed to do this without telling anyone the truth? That I know exactly what's going to happen," I reasoned.

"Yes," Gandalf said.

"And when we get to Rivendell, the Elves will be able to tell me everything," I continued.

"They'll be able to tell you more than I can," Gandalf said.

At least I would be awake long before we ever even got to Rivendell. This would all be a distant - and very creepy - memory. "How is it even possible? I know the members of the company. I'll have to gain their trust. There are a number of people in the company who aren't going to believe that I should even be there," I said.

Having seen the movies, I knew who wouldn't want me to come. Most of them, if I were honest. There was no doubt in my mind that very few of them would want me on the quest. Maybe a few of the younger dwarves. Gandalf was a definite yes, but he wasn't always around. He would be gone sometimes. I could probably get Bilbo on my side, too. The real problem would be Thorin, who, of course, was one of the people that I would have to save. That should be easy.

"Appeal to the easier members. You should know who those are," Gandalf said. Likely Fili, Kili, Bofur, and Ori. But that was only four out of... twelve? Damn me for not paying enough attention. "You are a fighter in your own realm, aren't you?"

"Well," I started awkwardly, "yes, but -"

"That will be a worthy skill," Gandalf interrupted.

That was when another blast of fury shot through me. "I can't swing a sword! I've thrown knives a few times with my father and gone shooting with a bow once. I was okay at both. But I can't actually do all of that stuff! And I don't think that punching an Orc or a Warg will work!" I yelled irritably.

There weren't exactly any guns in Middle Earth. That was the only thing that I could do. Bow and arrows would take me too long to learn. There was a chance that I wouldn't even be able to manage it. Knives were too difficult. Would they even work against an Orc or Warg? What the hell was I supposed to do? Punching them wouldn't work. They would bite off of my hand or arm or head. It would be a quick death if I was lucky. Things were getting confusing again.

"Like you said, it will take us a few weeks to reach Rivendell. You can learn on the way," Gandalf said.

Was he joking? It would take more than a few weeks to figure out how to use a weapon properly. "Thorin will never take me along," I said.

"Even if he doesn't agree, we need to get you to Rivendell to speak with Lord Elrond. Thorin will have to agree to keep you on until then," Gandalf said. I let out a soft groan. I was going to end up having to run from the Orcs and Wargs that would attack. "In the meantime, we can train you. Teach you to be a proper warrior. By the time that we are ready to leave Rivendell, Thorin will agree to keep you in the company."

"And if I want to go home by then?" I asked sharply.

"We... can see what we can do about returning you to your realm," Gandalf said, sounding disappointed.

Obviously he wanted me to stay on. But I had to take things slowly. One step at a time. "A few weeks and nothing more. We can reevaluate the situation at Rivendell," I agreed. Hopefully I would be out of this dream by then. "Tell me about myself."

If I was here before, I wanted to know. I tried to think back on my dreams. But I couldn't remember much about them. They were always just little flashes of the woods or people who only looked vaguely familiar. If I had once had a life in Middle Earth, I definitely didn't remember it. The only life that I remembered was the one that I had back in my own world. The only life that I could remember was the one that I had just been taken from. And couldn't find my way back to.

"In due time, child," Gandalf said.

Of course. "How is that fair?" I asked irritably. "Tell me about myself. I remember a normal life."

"Of course you do. It was what we decided upon long ago," Gandalf said.

So now apparently there were people who had been talking about my past. People in Middle Earth. New promise to myself: I will never drink again after this. "Since when was twenty-one years that long ago?" I asked.

"There is much you must learn, Leah Ambrose," Gandalf said.

"So tell me!" I shouted.

Gandalf walked forwards and patted me on the shoulder. "In time. There is something that we must handle in the meantime," he said.

Completely useless. "And what's that?" I asked.

"You know the story, correct?" Gandalf asked.

"Of course. Wasn't that the whole point?" I deadpanned.

"How does it begin?" Gandalf asked.

Now that was the one part of the story that I knew by heart. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." Gandalf was giving me a strange look. I smiled awkwardly. "You didn't mean the actual story, did you?" I asked stupidly.

"No. But you say that you don't remember the story?" Gandalf asked, smiling slightly.

My jaws flapped open and closed for a moment. How did I remember that? Had I always known that? "Well everyone remembers the opening sentence. It was a cool one," I argued weakly.

"Where does our story begin?" Gandalf asked.

First scene... Gandalf greeting the pipe-smoking Bilbo. "You go to recruit Bilbo for the journey," I answered.

"Exactly. That is where our journey begins," Gandalf said.

"I've always wanted to meet Martin Freeman," I said, starting to feel a little excited.

"Come again?" Gandalf asked confusedly.

"Nothing. Never mind," I muttered.

It would be very hard to mind what I said. "Mr. Baggins may be one of your easiest adversaries to overcome. He will be good to speak with first. And you may help sway him," Gandalf said.

It didn't really matter. Bilbo would come. Maybe just a little sooner if I was there. "I wouldn't worry about anything." Gandalf gave me another funny look when a horrible thought suddenly hit me. "What if I change something for the worse?" I asked.

Gandalf actually hesitated a little bit that time. "The Valar would not have brought you here if they thought that you would make things worse," Gandalf said, sounding a little bit unconvinced, unless I was insane. Which I very likely was.

"That's a lot of pressure to put on one person," I mumbled.

"Indeed," Gandalf agreed.

All of this pressure on me. Just to save those three men. At least, I had a feeling that saving their lives was what I was supposed to do. I couldn't imagine what else I was supposed to do. But how could I make it through everything that happened? Escaping the stupid trolls. Running from the Orcs and Wargs right into Rivendell. The battle between the stone giants in the storm. The attack from the goblins. The battle with Azog and his Orc Company.

So many other things, too. Running from Azog straight into Beorn's home. The fight with the spiders in Mirkwood. Escaping Mirkwood in the barrels and on that stupid river. Choosing whether to stay behind with Kili after his injury or going to Erebor to attempt to slay Smaug. Attempting to battle him and watching in horror as he flew off to destroy Laketown. Fighting a damned fire-breathing dragon or staying behind and watching who was destined to become a friend slowly die until Tauriel could save him.

Then came the question of whether or not I was going to be in Laketown to battle Smaug and attempt to save the people or if I would be in Erebor. Would I be able to stop Thorin from falling prey to the gold sickness? Would I be able to help Bilbo hide the Arkenstone? Trying to stop that fight between Thorin and Bilbo, debating on what to do with the Arkenstone, and the ultimate battle. The Battle of the Five Armies. Could I save Thorin, Fili, and Kili? I couldn't be sure.

The truly horrible thing was that I would have to be careful not to accidentally let it slip that I knew everything that was going to happen. And how would I manage to do that? I was known for putting my foot in my mouth. I couldn't blend in with these people. I was from my own little world. The real problem would be handling Smaug. How the hell was I going to even survive that attack? Dragons were not a thing from my own world. All I had seen was a CGI Benedict Cumberbatch. Not a real dragon!

"You know, I just realized something. How the hell am I supposed to save these men from a fire-breathing dragon? It doesn't matter how well I protect them. I can't fight fire," I said.

"Not yet," Gandalf said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked sharply.

"Not to worry," Gandalf said.

Obviously I wasn't getting anything more out of him today. Not about that. "So... We're going to Bilbo's house then?" I asked awkwardly.

"Yes," Gandalf said.

"What are we going to tell him about me?" I asked.

Gandalf started walking off and I quickly darted behind him, trying to keep pace with the tall wizard. "That you're a friend. A special request from Gandalf the Gray, himself. We need you on the request. That's all that they need to know," Gandalf reasoned.

"What about my accent? My clothes? I don't look like one of you," I argued.

That caught Gandalf's attention. He stopped walking and gave me a long look. "Now that is true. As for the accent, we can figure that out as we go. The clothes... yes... we will need to change your appearance slightly." Gandalf walked around me and I felt suddenly very self-conscious. "The market!" Gandalf shouted suddenly.

"They sell hobbit clothes!" I barked irritably. I wasn't that short. Hobbits were barely four feet tall. "I know that I'm not the tallest person around but I'm at least a little bit taller than them."

"They sell travelers robes. We can find you a pair that will fit. Perhaps a set of robes for a female dwarf," Gandalf said thoughtfully.

"I'm not that short!" I yelled.

But actually I was. I just barely stood over five feet tall. "A few sets should do you just fine," Gandalf said, ignoring my comment.

"You know, I don't have anything with me," I said.

"We can get you whatever you need," Gandalf said.

"I don't have money. At least, not money that they'll accept," I said.

Everything in my wallet was plastic. I had a feeling that the merchant stands didn't accept Visa. "It's not a problem, my dear. We'll find you anything that you need," Gandalf said.

"And we're going to go to Bilbo's afterwards?" I asked.

"Yes," Gandalf said.

The two of us set off through Hobbiton towards the merchant stands. "To think... I was just complaining about how monotonous my life was. What I wouldn't do for another lonely night in the dorm room," I complained.

Gandalf didn't say anything. He just let me complain silently. I couldn't believe that I wanted to be back at school. Back in those horrible freshman dorm rooms that had eventually made me come back home to my family. Something that I hadn't wanted to do. I wanted to stay up until three in the morning studying for an exam that I would likely fail anyways. What I wouldn't give for a movie night with my family. As long as it wasn't The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.

That was when it dawned on me. "Wait a second," I said, stopping dead in my tracks. "My family, my friends, what do they think is happening to me right now?"

Gandalf turned back and gave me a small smile. "Times moves differently between the realms. What serves as a year here is hardly a second in your own realm," he explained.

"You mean that hardly any time is passing while I'm here?" I asked stupidly.

"Yes," Gandalf said.

If there was a chance in hell that this was real, at least there came the fact that no one would think that I was missing or dead. "That's a relief, I suppose. Since I really don't want to have to catch up on all of that schoolwork," I mumbled. "We really need to work on getting me to speak like I'm from Middle Earth."

"It may come more naturally than you think," Gandalf said.

"Oh, I doubt that," I muttered.

"What do you know of the story of Erebor?" Gandalf asked.

Well that was sudden. "It's been a long time since I've read The Hobbit or seen any of the movies. I saw them when they first premiered and I read the books when I was a kid but that was it. Honestly, I was more of a Harry Potter fan." Gandalf gave me that strange look that I was already getting accustomed to. "I have no idea why I just told you that," I muttered.

"Erebor, my dear," Gandalf said, trying to remind me of what I was talking about before.

"Right. I remember something about the dragon, Smaug, coming to attack Erebor. There was a lot of gold in the stronghold. Dragons like gold. It attacked it and killed most of the people, including Thror and Thrain," I said.

"Is that all?" Gandalf said.

"That's all that I can remember off the top of my head," I said, not wanting to start getting details wrong.

"There was the city of Dale," Gandalf started. I nodded, standing back and letting him tell me the story. "Its markets known far and wide, full of the bounties of vine and vale. Peaceful, and prosperous. For this city lay before the doors of the greatest kingdom in Middle Earth: Erebor. Stronghold of Thror, King under the Mountain, mightiest of the dwarf lords.

"Thror ruled with utter surety, never doubting his house would endure, for his line lay secure in the lives of his son and grandson. Erebor was built deep within the mountain itself, the beauty of this fortress city was legend.

"Its wealth lay in the earth, in precious gems hewed from rock, and in great seams of gold, running like rivers through stone. The skill of the dwarves was unequaled, fashioning objects of great beauty out of diamond, emerald, ruby, and sapphire. Ever they delved deeper, down into the dark. And that is where they found it. The heart of the mountain. The Arkenstone. Thror named it the King's Jewel. He took it as a sign, a sign that his right to rule was divine. All would pay homage to him, even the great Elvenking, Thranduil.

"But the years of peace and plenty were not to last. Slowly, the days turned sour, and the watchful nights closed in. Thror's love of gold had grown too fierce. A sickness had begun to grow within him; it was a sickness of the mind. And where sickness thrives, bad things will follow.

"The first they heard was a noise like a hurricane coming down from the north. The pines on the mountain creaked and cracked in a hot, dry wind. It was a fire drake from the north. Smaug had come. Such wanton death was dealt that day, for this city of men was nothing to Smaug; his eye was set on another prize. For dragons covet gold, with a dark and fierce desire. Erebor was lost, for a dragon will guard his plunder as long as he lives.

"Thranduil would not risk the lives of his kin against the wrath of the dragon. No help came from the elves that day, or any day since. Robbed of their homeland, the dwarves of Erebor wandered the wilderness, a once mighty people brought low.

"The young dwarf prince took work where he could find it, laboring in the villages of men, but always he remembered the mountain smoke beneath the moon, the trees like torches blazing bright, for he had seen dragon fire in the sky, and his city turned to ash, and never forgave, and he never forgot," Gandalf finished.

And I remembered everything that he was saying. "I think -" I started.

My jaws snapped shut when I remembered that I couldn't say what I was thinking of. I couldn't tell him that it was the exact story that Bilbo had written - leaving it for Frodo to leave before the start of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Because that would have told Gandalf that Bilbo lived through the journey. Evidently I couldn't tell him anything like that. I would have to be very careful with Gandalf to not reveal anything that would happen over the next almost year and a half.

Gandalf motioned me into the stands of the little marketplace. "Let's find you a few things that will be more suited for an -"

"Adventure?" I interrupted.

Gandalf gave a small smile. "Precisely," he said.

The two of us didn't speak much as we walked back and forth, which was fine by me. I really didn't want to say anything to him. I just needed some time to be silent and not say anything. I needed some time to think about everything that was happening. I needed some time to figure out if this was just a crazy dream or if this really was happening. I couldn't imagine that it really was, but... my imagination really wasn't this good. And I wanted to imagine myself somewhere, it would have been at Hogwarts.

We walked into the marketplace and I went back and forth between the stands. Honestly I wasn't so sure what I wanted to pick up. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be wearing or using in Middle Earth. The movies didn't exactly show how hygiene worked here. So I just followed Gandalf and let him tell me whatever it was that I needed. Everything that we were grabbing reminded me of old-time camping equipment. Not that I knew much about old-time camping equipment.

At least I had been camping a few times before. I would know a little bit about how to handle myself on the journey. We picked up a lantern, some first-aid things (none of which I knew how or when to use), a bedroll, a thin pillow, some matches, a bowl, a water skin, utensils, spare cloths, and something that looked like old-fashioned soap. I couldn't figure out how or if I would be able to shave or wash my hair. That would be unfortunate. Although I supposed that everyone else would be in the same boat.

Those really weren't things that I should have been concerned about though. There were so many others problems that I should have been focused on right now. Definitely not my hygiene problems. I would have to figure out how to save the line of Durin. How would I manage to defeat Azog and Bolg and their Wargs? I didn't want to see them in real life. CGI versions had been freaky enough. But that had to be what I was here to change. How? That was the million dollar question.

There was no way that I could figure out how it was going to work. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't manage to figure out a way to save them. I knew what I had to do, but I didn't know how. There was no way that I could defeat an Orc. Not the way that they had appeared in the films. It would be impossible for me to manage it. They were twice my size, at least, and they had to be at least five times as strong. It didn't leave me in a winning position.

What could one little girl do? Apparently the Valar thought that I was going to do something very important. My head was starting to throb again. The only thing that I could think of doing was finding some weapons and learning how to fight with one. No guns, so I would have to rely on something else. Swords were too heavy. Knives weren't long-distance, which was likely the only way that I would be able to beat Azog or Bolg. That left only one weapon that I knew of.

Maybe I could try out the bow and arrow. I had used one back in my own world. It had only been once and it had been with a stationary target only ten feet away, but I could manage to learn. After all, I had about fourteen months to figure it out if I recalled correctly. Maybe one of the dwarves could help me fight a little better. I just had to stay focused until the Battle of Five Armies. And it would keep me occupied until I woke up to what promised to be a wicked hangover.

Goosebumps erupted on my skin as I thought about what I had seen on screen. The only parts of the films that I really hadn't wanted to see. Their deaths. I didn't want to have to see that. It wouldn't even be on a screen with an actor who was really alive. They were going to be real people who would really die. What if I managed to get close to the three? They were cute, too. All of them. It would be horrible to be friendly with them, knowing how their deaths would come and knowing that I had to stop them.

How? How the hell could I stop it? How the hell could I stop Azog from ramming his sword through Fili's stomach and dropping his corpse at Kili's feet? How the hell could I stop Bolg from sending that spike down into Kili's chest after he stopped him from killing Tauriel? And then came the worst one of all. How did I stop Azog from piercing Thorin through the heart? I couldn't just stop the fight, because that was when Thorin killed him. My head was spinning again as my headache returned full-force.

That was when another strange thought hit me. One that I had realized just a while ago. I kept forgetting that this was just some drug-induced dream. I kept forgetting that this wasn't real. I kept forgetting that I would likely be awake before we even reached the trolls. Maybe I would be awake before the company could even leave Hobbiton. My stomach churned oddly at the thought. I had to remember that this was just a dream. But something in me almost wished that it was more.

Almost. On one hand, I really didn't want to have to fight in a battle like this. Against one other girl in the octagon was about where my limit stood. On the other hand, it could have been something interesting. It might be kind of fun to be a part of one of the movies that I had always liked watching from time to time. And I wouldn't die. It was just a dream. Nothing that terrible would happen if failed. We would just continue on with the story into the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

As we walked through the stands I started to notice that people were staring at me like I was insane. Awkwardly I tucked myself into Gandalf slightly. I didn't want them looking at me. I knew that it was because of my wardrobe choice. I wished that I was wearing something that covered me a little more. It was also simply the way that I looked. The makeup and that I had obviously been well cared for rather than completely living off of the land. I must have looked almost like an elf. But far too short.

It took us almost an hour for me to finish picking up everything that I needed for the journey. Gandalf bought me a pack to toss everything in and I leaned down in the grass to stuff everything in. Gandalf then handed me a pouch of little gold coins that he told me should manage to keep me for a while. It felt funny to pay with coins rather than cash or a plastic card. I thanked Gandalf a few times before heading over to one of the stalls and paying for everything that I had picked up.

"Come now," Gandalf goaded.

"Where are we going?" I asked dumbly.

"Haven't you seen the story?" Gandalf asked, surprised.

"Well... Of course I have! I told you that. But - But don't you think that it's a bad idea for Bilbo to be seeing me? For anyone to be seeing me, really?" I asked.

"Why in the world would you think that?" Gandalf asked.

"Because I'm not from Middle Earth!" I snapped.

"And how will they know that?" Gandalf asked.

"Just look at my clothes," I said, motioning to myself.

Gandalf gave me a once-over before nodding. I definitely had to get out of my street clothes that probably made me look like a woman of the night here in the Shire. My clothes were tight-fitting and low-cut. At least I had worn tighter jeans and not the mini skirt that I had originally thought of.

"Ah... Yes," Gandalf said, motioning for me to follow him. "We'll take you by the clothing stands quickly and then go to Mr. Baggins' home."

"What am I even supposed to wear?" I asked.

There were no... Middle Earth clothing guidelines that I could think of. "I'll show you. Come now," Gandalf said.

"I can't believe that I'm going shopping with Ian McKellen," I said lowly.

"Come again?" Gandalf asked.

It was going to be hard to not comment about the actors in the movies, so many of whom I was quite fond of. "Nothing. Sorry. What am I supposed to wear?" I asked.

Gandalf glanced through the stands of clothing that we were passing. "We can likely find you a suitable dress or long skirt -"

"No," I interrupted.

"What?" Gandalf asked, surprised.

"No. No skirts and no dresses," I said determinedly.

The only time that I wore a skirt was when I was out at a trashy bar. Any time that I was fighting I was either in a pair of shorts or pants. "This is what females wear in Middle Earth," Gandalf said.

He was pointing to a blue dress. It was relatively tight-fitting on the bodice but I could see that the skirt would be very loose. Likely it would flow around my ankles. There was no way that I could run or fight in something that I would end up tripping over. It would get caught on branches, too. I needed something like trousers and a blouse. Something tight where it wouldn't get snagged on anything or be easy to grab onto. Those were the standards for clothing in our cage fights back home.

"You want me to try and change what happens in the end of the story?" I asked. Gandalf nodded slowly. "That means that I have to fight. I'm going to have to run. That means that I need to wear pants. Trousers. Whatever you call them. I need to wear that."

"I'll see what I can do," Gandalf finally conceded.

"How - How much should I get?" I asked dumbly, rifling through the clothing.

"Get a few changes of clothes. Just in case of an accident," Gandalf suggested.

"Yeah. That's probably a good idea," I muttered, thinking about all of the accidents that we would face.

So I walked back and forth through the tables and racks where the clothing was hung up. My hands were gently running over the soft material and I smiled. They were all cotton, or something like that. All I knew was that they were very soft. But I had to find something that was designed for someone a normal height. At least, dwarf or race of man. Something like that. The tallest hobbits were almost a foot shorter than me. So I headed over towards the taller clothing.

Which was pathetic, as I had always needed to buy short clothing. It took me a long time to find something that was suitable for the kind of journey that I would be facing. I eventually managed to pick up two white blouses, two black, one green, and one blue one. The reminded me of the ones that pirates wore. They were loose-fitting, long-sleeved, and a little long on my torso. I picked up three pairs of deep green trousers, one brown pair, and two black pairs. I also picked up two pairs of slouchy black boots.

Now I really felt like a pirate. I supposed that was better than what I was wearing right now. Gandalf stood back and watched as I continued shopping back and forth. He was pointing me towards things that I would need and would fit. All of the shirts would fall like dresses. I noticed that as I held them up against me. They would be too big... But a moment later, Gandalf pointed me out to something that I could only describe as a corset to tighten the blouse around me.

It would go underneath my chest to my lower stomach to keep the blouse tighter-fitting, keeping it from being easily grabbed. I got myself two black pairs and a brown one. A little grin formed on my face. At least the corsets are cute. Then I got myself two cloaks. There was a lighter deep green one for protection against the rain, since I knew that we would have to deal with a heavy downpour more than once. I also got a heavier black one for the cold weather. I wasn't used to the cold so that would be hard.

A moment later, Gandalf pointed me out to two weapons belts. They would hang around my hips to hold something the size of a dagger. Gandalf also pointed me out to two longer cloaks that would protect against the sun. Lightweight and flowing. One was green and the other was black. I was really going to hate green, black, and blue by the time that this was over. I then bought myself two deep maroon pants that fitted sort of like the compression pants that I wore back home to fight in.

That was a good thing. I was used to fighting in those. But Gandalf pointed me out to something that supposedly went over the pants. It was something like the skirt portion that Carrie Fisher had worn with the Princess Leia metal bikini. One piece hung in front of my thighs as the other hung behind them. The sides were open. I would have to figure out how to fight in that without getting tangled up. I got myself an arm guard, too. Just in case I decided to try and use a weapon.

Apparently everything that I had picked out was something that would be good for a fight. That was what Gandalf had told me, at least. But he had also originally wanted me to get a dress to fight in. Gandalf then pointed me out to what looked to be a thick leather plate that would go over my chest and stomach. It had straps that would go over my shoulders to keep it up on my body. It looked thick enough to stop a weak attack, but a sword would definitely puncture straight through it.

"Okay. I think I'm ready to go," I said, tucking everything away.

"What about a weapon?" Gandalf asked.

Turning towards him, I raised an eyebrow. "Should I have one? I really can't use them. My body is my weapon," I said, motioning to myself.

"You will have to learn to fight like a proper ranger if you shall accompany us on our journey," Gandalf said carelessly.

"Last I checked, I didn't want to come on this journey!" I shouted.

"How about a sword?" Gandalf asked, ignoring my comment.

"I can't swing a sword," I said.

"A knife, perhaps?" Gandalf asked.

That would definitely be easier to carry than a sword. "That would work," I said.

Gandalf walked over to a weapon table and started rifling through the knives. "This one, perhaps," Gandalf finally said, picking one up and handing it to me.

Gently taking it in my hands, I started turning it over. It was a pair that he had given me. They were two long blades that appeared as something like daggers. They had finely-carved light wooden handles. There was some type of rune inscribed in the base of the handle. The blades were about eight inches or so. They were slightly curved and came to an incredibly sharp point. There were three cut-outs near the top of the blade of the dagger that were all small. I couldn't tell if there was a purpose or just decoration.

"That one is good," I said. As we walked through the weapons, I spotted something in the back corner. "Hey... What about a bow and arrow?"

"An archer, yes?" Gandalf asked.

"I've used a bow and arrow once, maybe four years ago. I wasn't too bad when I used it. With some practice I think that I can get better," I said.

And it will keep me far away from Azog and Bolg. "The Valar may have given you a gift," Gandalf muttered.

"They can do that?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. It comes naturally. They are gifts given by the Valar. With practice you can get better," Gandalf explained. I supposed that being a master archer would be cool. "Let's see... this one. May I?"

"Yes, sir," the salesman said.

Gandalf picked up a bow from the salesman that was one of the prettiest things that I had ever seen. I could imagine that it was something that would have cost a fortune back home. It was a recurve bow that was made out of a dark wood. It had golden runes painted into it that I couldn't read, but they were beautiful. There were even floral patterns that were carved into the bottom of each of the upper and lower limbs.

"You remember how to use it?" Gandalf asked.

"Yes," I said.

Somehow I did remember. I took the bow in my hands and let out a deep breath. It had been a long time since I had held a recurve bow but I had always liked them. I thought back on the lessons that I had gotten from my father. But I didn't need to. Because something clicked the moment that I placed my hand on grip and held it properly. It felt... right to have the bow in my arms. It felt like a piece of me. I pulled the string back and smiled.

"Can I try to fire it?" I asked Gandalf.

"An arrow, please," Gandalf told the salesman.

"My lady," the salesman said, handing me an arrow.

"Thank you," I said.

The two men watched closely as I took the arrow and nocked it against the arrow rest. I was reasonably certain that it was the proper positioning. Out of the corner of my eyes I noticed that a few people were watching me. It made me blush. Most of them were hobbits who were also shopping. I felt so awkward. Of course, I did look a little strange to them. I was wearing insane clothing, traveling with Gandalf the Gray, and about to fire a bow.

Trying to shake off the feeling of the eyes on me, I turned towards a tree. I had to fire at something that wasn't going to get hurt. Almost immediately I spotted a knot in the tree trunk that was about at my height. The tree was only about fifteen feet away. I took a few deep breaths before positioning myself. I drew the string back with the arrow in between my knuckles and slowly let my fingers release their grip on the string. The arrow shot off and lodged about two inches underneath the knot in the tree.

There was a smattering of applause as I smiled at the shot. "We'll take it," Gandalf told the salesman, who was smiling.

That wasn't too bad of a shot for someone who had only used a bow once before in their life. Maybe the Valar really had given me a gift. With practice there was a chance that I could get good enough to shoot Azog before he killed anyone. The salesman gave me the bow and sheath of arrows as Gandalf handed me the other arrow. I had never actually had a bow before, but I had always wanted one. They just seemed so cool. Gandalf also bought me a real pack to carry my provisions.

"Oh, I feel like Katniss," I said excitedly, slinging the bow and arrows over my shoulder.

"Who?" Gandalf asked confusedly.

"She's a fictional character in this novel and film franchise from my realm. She's a master archer and -" I cut myself off when I realized that Gandalf didn't care and it didn't matter. "You know... It doesn't matter. I'll work on not saying things like that."

"We'll teach you about adapting to this world," Gandalf said. "Ten yards into the forest. Get changed before we meet Mr. Baggins."

"Okay. Is there...?" I trailed off.

"There are no Orcs or Wargs this close to Hobbiton. Go on. I'll wait," Gandalf said, reading my thoughts.

"Okay. I'll be right back," I said.

So I headed back off into the woods. I was a little concerned about someone seeing me, but I supposed that it wouldn't have really mattered that much. I would wake up soon enough. I changed into the first thing that I could find in my pack. I slid on the white tunic, one of the black corsets, a pair of deep green trousers, the black slouchy boots, and pulled the thin black cloak over my shoulders. Then I pulled my hair into a braid that went across the side of my head to fall onto my chest.

Some hairs were already flying out, just the way that they always had. As I pushed my normal clothes back into my pack, I hesitated when my hand looped around my phone. I unlocked it after a moment of debating and checked it. There was no reception although it still worked. So I sighed and tucked my phone back into the bag. There was no point in using it right now. I then tucked my wallet and keys into my bag. I would need them when it was time to wake up.

Plus I wanted to save the battery on my phone. Because that was the only thing that I had right now that would show me the pictures of my family. I didn't have any paper versions. My phone was the only memories that I had of them right now. As neat as it was to be in Middle Earth for a while, I wanted to be back with my family. I wanted to eat dinner and gossip with my mother, I wanted to run with my father, and I wanted to laugh with Harley.

But I would see them soon enough. It was only a matter of time before I woke up from this horrible trip. That never seemed to end. It had only been about an hour or so, but it felt like it had been forever. As I walked back out of the woods, I let out a deep breath. Something about being here, in these clothes, with my weapons felt right. It felt wonderful to be like this. So I smiled at Gandalf as I walked back up to him. He gave me an approving nod the moment that he saw me.

"Much better. You look like you belong here," Gandalf said.

"I actually feel like I belong here." Gandalf handed me back my new bow and arrow set and I threw them back over my shoulder. "Who's going to teach me?" I asked suddenly.

"Perhaps Master Kili can teach you," Gandalf said.

A tiny grin appeared on the corners of my lips. "Cool." But I still snorted when I thought about what Hayley would say if she could see me getting archery lessons from Aidan Turner. "Wait. Can I get a journal?" I asked.

The words came out before I could even think about it. "For?" Gandalf asked.

"I - I want to recount my story. My time being here. If you're really not crazy and I'm not..." I trailed off. I couldn't even get to the realization that this might be real. "My sister would think that being here is incredible. I want to write her letters."

The corners of Gandalf's lips turned upwards. "Of course," he said.

We headed back into the middle of the stands and over to one of the tables where a male hobbit was selling all types of writing materials. Gandalf bought me a small leather-bound journal and something that looked a bit like a quill to write with. Once we had paid and I had slipped the journal into my pack, we headed off on the trek towards Bilbo's home. As we were walking through Hobbiton, I looked around and smiled. It was beautiful here and the smell was outstanding. Floral and sweet.

As we walked up the long road that led to Bilbo's home, I glanced around. It was stunning. The rolling hills and homes that were built into them. The circular doors and grassy roofs. The little hobbits who were walking back and forth. Most of them seemed to be doing some type of gardening. It was the most peaceful place that I had ever seen. They were all pushing wheelbarrows around and chatting softly with each other. There was also the beautiful river that flowed through Hobbiton.

It took us almost twenty minutes to arrive at Bilbo's home. I glanced up at the little hobbit-hole and smiled. It looked even prettier in person than it did in the movies. Grass surrounded the little home with only a few chunks of lighter-colored wood sticking out. There was also his bright blue circular door. The one where Gandalf would soon make a mark. Flowers were planted all around and I smiled. There was even a sign that said 'no admittance' which I was sure that Gandalf would ignore. I smiled weakly.

Some part of me had always wanted to visit the set. This might have been just a little bit cooler. Bilbo Baggins/Martin Freeman was sitting right on his porch. He was smoking a pipe and blew out a smoke ring. As we walked up it collapsed and became a smoke moth. His eyes were closed and he was leaning back, soaking up the sun. The moth flew back into Bilbo's face, waking him from his reverie. He instantly looked up in surprise at Gandalf and myself.

Scowling at Gandalf for his rude awakening, I turned back to look at Bilbo. I grinned brightly at the sight of him. He was actually adorable. And it was Martin Freeman! Of course, this was actually Bilbo Baggins. But I could still pretend. He was the cutest thing that I had ever seen, tiny and confused. I realized just how short he was. Maybe a little over four feet tall, despite the fact that his actor was a number of inches taller than me. The thought made me smile.

"Gandalf. That's rude," I chided.

"Good morning," Bilbo said cautiously.

"Good morning," I chirped.

"What do you mean? Do you mean to wish me a good morning, or do you mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not? Or, perhaps you mean to say that you feel good on this particular morning. Or are you simply stating that this is a morning to be good on?" Gandalf asked, obviously confusing Bilbo.

"Oh, Gandalf..." I muttered, remembering this exchange from the film and novel.

"All of them at once, I suppose," Bilbo said slowly.

It was literally like being straight in the scene from the movie. I couldn't believe it. The whole thing was incredible. For a moment, just a brief second, I wished that this was real. I supposed that I would just have to enjoy it while it was. I glanced over at Gandalf and saw that he was looking slightly disapprovingly at Bilbo. Of course, he was hoping for Bilbo to say something excitable right away. But Bilbo was confused and bewildered.

"Hello, by the way," Bilbo said, giving me a small smile. "You are?"

Of course. They were much nicer to women in Middle Earth. "Oh, I'm Leah Ambrose. Nice to meet you, Bilbo Baggins," I said.

"You as well, Miss Ambrose," Bilbo said.

I leaned forward to shake his hand. "Just Leah, please," I said softly.

"It's lovely to meet you," Bilbo said.

His comments were so well-intended. He was definitely as sweet as he appeared in the films. "You, too. That's a lovely home that you have," I said, motioning back to the hobbit-hole.

Bilbo grinned. "Thank you. I decorated everything myself," he said.

"Well it's very well-done. Perhaps one day I'll have to ask you to decorate my own home," I said.

"I would be honored. Where is that accent from?" Bilbo asked. My heart skipped a beat. "If you don't mind my asking."

Not good. Definitely not good. I had been hoping to push off that conversation for a while. I panicked as I desperately tried to remember places from Middle Earth. For a brief moment I shot a glare at Gandalf. Why the hell didn't he tell me where I was supposed to be from? I wasn't that cultured in Middle Earth lore and geography! I was attempting to think of any place from Lord of the Rings, which happened in other places in Middle Earth. Where was that place with all of the men and the one girl?

"Rohan," I answered dumbly.

It was the only place that I could remember that had mortal men. Gandalf gave me an approving nod. Bilbo smiled softly. "I've never been. But I've heard it's nice," Bilbo said.

"Oh, it's lovely. It is home, after all," I said sweetly, shooting Gandalf a glare. "But I was ready to go out and travel the world. See what else it has to offer."

"And you come to Hobbiton, of all places?" Bilbo asked, chuckling softly.

"It's peaceful here. Pretty. I like it," I said honestly.

"Thank you," Bilbo said, before turning back to Gandalf. "Can I help you?"

"That remains to be seen. I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure," Gandalf said.

Bilbo pulled the pipe away from his mouth, looking shocked. "An adventure? Now, I don't imagine anyone west of Bree would have much interest in adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things. Make you late for dinner, hm, mm," Bilbo said.

"I think that you could be quite good on an adventure," I chimed in.

"Oh, no, Miss Ambrose," Bilbo laughed.

"Leah," I corrected.

"Leah. Pardon. But I believe that you have the wrong man if you would like someone to partake in an adventure with you," Bilbo said.

"It could be fun," I said in a sing-song voice.

"Perhaps twenty years ago," Bilbo chided.

Gandalf and I exchanged a look. Just like with the film and novel, it would be very difficult to get Bilbo to agree to come with us. Bilbo got up from his little bench and walked over to checks his mailbox, grabbing some mail and sorting through it, clucking to himself. I exchanged another look with Gandalf, who made no indication to do anything but stand and watch Bilbo, who looked quite uncomfortable, as Gandalf and I were still standing there. Puffing his pipe in vexation, he began to head back inside.

"Good morning. A pleasure to meet you, Leah," Bilbo said, remembering his manners at the last moment.

"Hang on, Bilbo," I called.

Bilbo only made it up a few steps before Gandalf started to speak. "To think that I should have lived to be good -morninged by Belladonna Took's son, as if I were selling buttons at the door."

Bilbo hesitated and turned back around. "Beg your pardon?" he asked.

"You've changed, and not entirely for the better, Bilbo Baggins," Gandalf said.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Bilbo asked.

"Well, you know my name, although you don't remember I belong to it. I'm Gandalf!" the old wizard cried, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And Gandalf means... me."

Bilbo seemed to think on his proclamation for a moment. "Gandalf... not Gandalf, the wandering Wizard, who made such excellent fireworks! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer's Eve. Ha, ha!" Bilbo cried excitedly.

"Well," Gandalf started, smiling.

"Hmm, I had no idea you were still in business," Bilbo said.

The smile dropped off of Gandalf's face. "Oh, I would have loved to see them," I said brightly, trying to redirect the conversation.

"Someone may still have some if you could go looking," Bilbo suggested.

"And where else should I be?" Gandalf asked, ignoring our exchange.

"Ha, ha! Hmm, hmm..."

That was about the most that we could get out of Bilbo. He was motioning around with his pipe as he clearly tried to search for the right words. If I were him I wouldn't have been able to find them either. I would have been very confused. But I knew what was going to happen. I would just have to try and move things along a little faster. While I tried to figure out what to say, Bilbo puffed confusedly on his pipe.

"Well, I'm pleased to find you remember something about me, even if it's only my fireworks. Well that's decided. It will be very good for you, and most amusing for me," Gandalf said, turning away slightly and pointing back to Bilbo. "I shall inform the others."

"Inform the... who? What? No. No. No! Wait," Bilbo said as Gandalf started to walk away. I was frozen in my spot, unsure of where to go. Bilbo darted up the stairs before turning back. "We do not want any adventures here, thank you. Not today, not. I suggest you try over the Hill or across the Water. Good morning."

His words were so jumbled that I was sure that he could barely understand what he was saying. The entire thing made me smile. Bilbo would grow into himself. He just needed some time. In frustration, Bilbo retreated into Bag End, gesturing at Gandalf with his pipe. I could hear him bolt the door and his body thump to lean against it. I watched with a raised eyebrow as Gandalf started to carve the little symbol into the wood with his staff. The one that would let the dwarves know to come here.

"You will stay with Bilbo. I will return tonight," Gandalf said, turning back.

"You can't just invite me to stay in someone's home!" I barked.

"There is business to which I must attend," Gandalf said.

"So let me attend to it with you!" I said desperately.

"Convince him, please. I shall return just a bit later," Gandalf said.

"Wait a second!" I barked.

"Good day," Gandalf said.

His words left no room for argument. I was furious with him. I didn't know Bilbo! He couldn't just leave me here with him all day. I didn't even know what I was supposed to say. I had no script and what happened next wasn't in the movie. I could see Gandalf go around to the corner of the house and look straight into the window. A moment later Gandalf nodded at me and walked off. Resigned to the fact that I would have to stay with Bilbo, I climbed the steps and knocked on the door.

It opened a moment later to a concerned-looking Bilbo. His irritable glare dropped the moment that he realized that I was alone. "I'm so sorry. I think that I'm stuck here..." I muttered awkwardly.

Bilbo jumped off to the side. "Come in, Leah," Bilbo said, motioning me inside.

"He's like the crazy homeless uncle who just does whatever he wants and everyone else has to play along," I told Bilbo, referring to Gandalf.

"That's an interesting comparison," Bilbo commented, smiling.

"Sorry. You might find me to be a bit strange," I said awkwardly.

"That's quite alright. I doubt that you could beat out Gandalf for strangeness," Bilbo teased.

We both laughed softly. "That would be a good competition," I said.

"Would you care for a tour?" Bilbo asked.

"Yes. I would love that," I said brightly.

It would be nice to actually see Bilbo's home. I could just about reach up and touch the roof, but I would have had to stand on my tip-toes. Bilbo motioned for me to follow him as he walked me around the home. The hallway from the door was much like a tunnel. It had paneled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats. The hallway seemed to go on and on and many little round doors opened out of it.

It was only one floor. Bilbo walked me through the bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (of which there were a number), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, and dining-rooms. They were all on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side, for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

His house was absolutely incredible. The movies didn't do his little hobbit-hole justice. I wished that I lived in a place like this. My two-story craftsman home seemed so normal all of a sudden and so boring. Maybe when I got back I would have to convince my family to redo the house like a hobbit-hole. The more that we walked around, the more that I realized that it did look just like it did in the movies. Even better. It was just the way that I imagined that it would be.

As we walked around the home and out into the front yard, Bilbo showed me everything that was happening. We even headed back out into the marketplace where I helped Bilbo pick out some food for dinner. I noticed that he was continuously looking over his shoulder - likely for any sign of Gandalf. But he wouldn't be back until sundown. The entire village of Hobbiton was the cutest place that I had ever seen. And I made sure to let Bilbo know that he was lucky to live in a place like this.

The entire time that we walked, I chatted back and forth with Bilbo. The two of us headed back into the hobbit-hole after about an hour as I smiled. Bilbo really was so sweet. He was just the way that he appeared to be in the movie. Everything that he said either made me laugh or smile. Bilbo was nothing like Martin Freeman, who, last I had seen, was known to be a little bit of a brat. But a funny brat. I wanted to ask him to give me the middle finger, but he would certainly think that I was insane.

"Would you like some tea?" Bilbo asked as we wandered back into the kitchen.

"I would love tea," I said, watching is Bilbo started to make two mugs. "Tell me a little bit about yourself."

"What would you like to hear?" Bilbo asked.

"Tell me about your childhood."

"Well my birthday is September 22nd."

"October 21st," I commented, making Bilbo smile.

"I am the only son of Bundo Baggins and Belladonna Took. My father constructed a spacious and luxurious Hobbit-hole, as you see, for Belladonna, which they named Bag End. Then we moved into our new home, where I have spent most of my life. As Gandalf clearly remembers, when I was a young Hobbit, I was curious and eager for news of the outside world," Bilbo said.

"Gandalf was saying that he took notice of you during his visits because you were so strange," I said.

"I suppose that's come back to bite me," Bilbo groaned.

Smiling softly, I took the mug and nudged Bilbo. "It'll be fun, Bilbo. Trust me," I said brightly.

Bilbo laughed and took up his own mug. "We'll see about that. I remember Gandalf's Fireworks displays in my mother's family home at Great Smials. When I was younger I practiced my rock-throwing skills so much, that birds and squirrels would flee the area whenever I bent down to pick up a rock," Bilbo explained.

His words made me laugh loudly. Bilbo smiled as I placed a hand on his shoulder. "And you think that you wouldn't be an adventurer!" I shouted.

"That was just throwing rocks at trees, though," Bilbo reasoned.

"You would be astounded how quickly that could change," I teased.

Bilbo gave me a small smile. "I see that you're siding with Gandalf in this whole adventure situation," he said slowly.

"Well I'm going!" I said brightly, getting more excited about the adventure by the moment. "And considering how close the others will be to each other - those who are going on the journey - I think I could use a little bit of an outsider with me."

"I'll have to think about that," Bilbo said.

But there was a tiny smile on his face. I had a feeling that I might have been able to crack him. "Is there any chance that I could convince you?" I asked teasingly.

"We'll see," Bilbo said slowly, after a moment of hesitation.

"That's not a yes," I said.

"You're very insistent," Bilbo said.

"I get it from my parents," I said, making Bilbo smile again. "Tell me more."

"When my father and mother died, I became my own master and have spent the next seven years living alone in Bag End. I've grown rather fond of my life as a wealthy bachelor. It helps that I've acquired a reputation for respectability that my neighbors admire," Bilbo said proudly.

"Hmm... You sound very respectful. But it also sounds boring," I said.

"It's steady," Bilbo argued weakly. "Tell me about yourself."

"Oh... There's not much interesting," I muttered, trying to avoid talking about my fake Middle Earth life.

"Start easy. How old are you?" Bilbo asked.

"Twenty-one. I'll be twenty-two in a few weeks."

Bilbo laughed softly and I raised a brow, wondering what was funny. "Sometimes I forget about how differently the different races age."

"That's right. You're... fifty, I'd say?" I asked, trying to remember the story.

"Exactly right. Very good," Bilbo said.

"Thank you."

"You seem like you're just a little kid," Bilbo laughed.

Well I was definitely a lot younger than any of the dwarves, Gandalf, or Bilbo were. "I know. I feel like I'm a little kid sometimes. But I'm not. When it comes to the race of... man, we become adults by the time that we're eighteen," I explained.

"That seems so young," Bilbo said, whipping around to look at me.

"When we barely live to be eighty, ninety, one hundred if we're lucky, we have to grow up a little more quickly," I said.

Bilbo gave me a small smile. "That's an interesting perspective that you have on life, Leah."

"Thank you. My parents always said that I was gifted in being able to see things from all angles."

"Tell me a bit about yourself," Bilbo goaded.

It would be very difficult to try and rework my life as if I was from Middle Earth. "My mother and father are both wonderful people. But they're busy a lot. With work and... whatnot. My father is a blacksmith. My mother takes care of the homes around our village. I have one little sister. Harley. She's sixteen," I explained somewhat awkwardly.

"What's she like?" Bilbo asked.

"Smart. Full of life. We haven't always been that close and sometimes we go a long time without talking, but she's my best friend. I love her to death. I would do anything for her," I said fiercely.

She was the best sister that I could have asked for, as much as I never told her that. "That's sweet," Bilbo said.

"She's always wanted to go on an adventure like this," I said, setting my things down and taking the journal out of my bag. Bilbo was looking at it curiously. "I grabbed this journal at one of the stands in the village. I'm going to write her letters. She'll want to know every bit of this."

"It will be like living through you," Bilbo said, grinning.

"That's what I'm hoping for. She's got this boyfriend that I don't really like," I admitted.

Bilbo laughed under his breath. "Why is that?"

"She's better than him."

"Spoken like a truly protective older sister," Bilbo said fondly.

"I suppose that I am."

"And you?"

For a moment I hesitated, unsure of what he was talking about. Then it dawned on me. I realized that he was asking me if I had a boyfriend. That wasn't a simple answer. Maybe I was never going back home... Maybe I had ended things without having to end things... I thought about Brian and being with him for the last six months. I had been planning on ending things anyways. I was going to end things. I knew that. We were just friends. We had been for a long time. We weren't destined to be something more.

"No. Not really," I finally answered.

"Not really?" Bilbo asked.

"No. No one that suited my fancy. I guess I'm not there yet. Not ready for that yet. Right now I want to go out and have my own adventures. I'm not the type to stay in the kitchen and take care of the children," I said brightly.

That was all that I wanted. Not to be a housewife. "I did get that sense about you," Bilbo admitted.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"It is meant as one. You're a warrior, then?"

If you count beating the life out of some other girl inside a fenced-in cage as being a warrior. "I'm not sure that I would take it that far. But I'm definitely a fighter. I always have been. I just feel like I've never really had a purpose in life. Being here... getting ready for this... it feels like I finally have one," I said, turning in a slow circle.

Bilbo placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "That's when you know that you're doing the right thing," he said.

"You're like the angel on my shoulder," I teased.

"Pardon?" Bilbo asked confusedly.

"An expression we use back in Rohan," I covered quickly.

"Rohan seems like a strange place."

"It is. But I enjoyed it well enough. It was just time to get out."

Besides lying about my place of origin, I did mean what I had said. I had wanted to get out and do something different with my life. This was my chance. "That bow and arrow set back there," Bilbo said, motioning back to the door with his head. "Is it yours?"

I hadn't thought that bringing all of my things into town would have been a good idea so I had left them in Bilbo's home. "Yes. Gandalf took me to get it," I said.

"Can you use it?" Bilbo asked curiously.

Laughing under my breath, I shook my head. "Somewhat. I can hit a stationary target that isn't standing too far away. But the far-off targets and moving ones pose a problem," I said, making Bilbo laugh. "I'm hoping to get better with time. Honestly I'm better fighting hand-to-hand."

"Is that so?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"Can't believe that a girl is a good fighter?" I shot back.

"Not at all!" Bilbo said quickly, sensing that he might have offended me. "I know that they can be. Are you a ranger?"

"No, no. But I'm hoping that I can be one someday. This is just the beginning of my journey," I said softly.

"I do wish you luck, Leah Ambrose," Bilbo said sweetly.

We're both going to need luck, Bilbo Baggins. "Oh, Bilbo. You have to come on the adventure! I'll be so awkward without you. We've actually made friends," I said excitedly.

"What even is this adventure?" Bilbo asked.

You have to steal an extremely precious jewel out from under the nose of a fire-breathing dragon and then battle an army of Orcs. "I don't think that it's my place to tell you. But promise me that you will heavily consider it," I said softly.

"Is it dangerous?" Bilbo asked.

Yes. "What kind of fun is an adventure without a little danger?" I teased.

"That's a dangerous way of thinking," Bilbo said slowly.

"But it's a fun way of thinking! I think that you could enjoy it," I said.

Bilbo looked like he might have been considering it. "Perhaps..." he said slowly. "You'll be going, then?"

"Yes. I don't think that I have much of a choice. There's something that I must discuss with Lord Elrond during our journey. He's the Lord of Rivendell," I said, half because it was the truth and half because I knew that he loved Rivendell.

"You're going to Rivendell?" Bilbo asked, suddenly interested.

"We'll be stopping there for a while, I believe. I see that look in your eyes," I said brightly. "You want to go. At least to Rivendell."

"Clever girl," Bilbo said, narrowing his eyes playfully.

"Thank you, kind sir," I chirped.

"Would you care to help me prepare dinner?"

"I'm not much of a cook but I'll do what I can."

"Wonderful. Or perhaps you can just keep me company while I cook."

"You don't get much company around here, Bilbo, do you?" I asked.

"Not much, but I've always found it a bit more relaxing."

"Sounds lonely," I commented.

"Well I'm not lonely anymore," Bilbo said.

The two of us smiled at each other. Bilbo was incredibly friendly and didn't get annoyed with me, despite how strange I really was and how much I knew that he didn't understand what I was talking about half of the time. The two of us headed into the kitchen to start preparing the fish dinner. The dinner that I knew that Dwalin would eat when he arrived before anyone else. The thought made me smile. I couldn't help but to wonder if Balin would eat mine.

As we cooked the dinner and set out the nice plates, we managed to bond a little more. I had a feeling that I might manage to convince Bilbo to come with us earlier. As we spoke together I found myself genuinely enjoying the company of Bilbo Baggins. It did unnerve me when I managed to remind myself again that I so easily forgot that this was just some drug-induced dream that would eventually end. It was almost impossible to remember that this was just a dream.

Eventually the sun set and dinner for the two of us was prepared. Bilbo brought me over to the table as he settled down and tucked a napkin in his collar, sprinkling salt on his fish. I didn't bother to move around. I knew that things were about to change. As Bilbo was squeezing lemon juice on his fish, he looked up in surprise when the doorbell rang. He gave me a funny look and I nodded as we went to open the door. Just as expected, Dwalin was on the doorstep. Dwalin instantly bowed to us and I smiled.

"Ah. Do you know him?" Bilbo asked.

"Sort of," I whispered.

"Dwalin, at your service."

Out of the corner of my eyes - as I was still looking at Bilbo - I noticed that Dwalin was giving me a funny look. He must not have been expecting a woman. And certainly not a human woman. Shell-shocked, Bilbo let out a noise that was something like a pathetic whimper. I snorted under my breath and gave an awkward half-bow. Coming to his senses, Bilbo quickly tied his checkered robe tighter and stood a little taller, although he was definitely still confused.

"Bilbo Baggins, at yours."

"Leah Ambrose."

Dwalin only gave a quick look at Bilbo before giving me another small bow. "Pleasure, my lady."

"Just Leah, please," I said softly.

They would be like people were in the Middle Ages. Women were treated more as pets and property. They were going to treat me like I was some gentle doll. It would take a long time, maybe never, until they started treating me like one of them. It wasn't going to be easy to get them to look at me like I was an actual warrior and not just some pretty face. Dwalin walked inside without an invitation and gently brushed past me.

"D - Do we know each other?" Bilbo asked, as Dwalin walked inside.

"No," Dwalin said, briefly stopping to stare at Bilbo. "Which way, laddie? Is it down here?"

"I s what down where?" Bilbo asked.

Dwalin continued to walk into the hobbit-hole. He threw his cloak off of his shoulders and gathered it in his arms. Immediately afterwards he dumped some of his things on the ground. He turned back long enough to thrust the rest of his provisions onto Bilbo, who looked stunned at the turn of events.

"Supper. He said there'd be food, and lots of it," Dwalin said.

"H - He said? Who said?" Bilbo stuttered.

Bilbo stood confused in the doorway as Dwalin walked into the kitchen. I grabbed Bilbo's arm and pulled him with me into the dining room, where Dwalin had taken his place at the kitchen table. I laughed under my breath as the minutes ticked by and we all sat in silence. Dwalin was sitting at Bilbo's spot on the kitchen table, eating Bilbo's dinner, while Bilbo sat behind him, confused. I was there, too, but trying to stifle giggles. Dwalin ate all the flesh from the fish, then ate the head, too, as we looked on in disgust.

"Gandalf sent him here," I whispered to Bilbo.

"Gandalf?" Bilbo asked, surprised. "For what?"

"This is the meeting place for the rest of the company. Thirteen of them, I think," I said, unable to remember what their exact number was.

"Thirteen dwarves?" Bilbo asked, sounding horrified.

"I believe so. It's been a while since I -" I stopped speaking the moment that I realized that I was about to give away my huge secret. "I mean, Gandalf mentioned something to me about all of them coming here to meet and talk about their journey," I said, trying to recover from my mistake.

"To where?" Bilbo asked.

"You'll see," I whispered. We looked back over at Dwalin. "Should we speak to him?"

Dwalin turned back, maybe overhearing what I had said. "Human, lassie?" Dwalin asked.

My jaws flapped stupidly for a moment. "What?" I asked dumbly. Dwalin gave me a long look. "Uh - Yes. Yes. Race of man."

"How old are you?" Dwalin asked.

"Twenty-one. I'll be twenty-two soon," I answered.

Dwalin snorted. "A wee one," he said.

"I suppose," I muttered.

"What are you doing here, lassie?" Dwalin asked, giving me a long stare. "Not a hobbit, I see."

What the hell was I supposed to say to that? "Oh, well... Gandalf brought me here to wait with Bilbo until he returns. There are things that I think he wants to speak about to everyone," I said dumbly.

"Speak about?" Dwalin asked.

"It's Gandalf's story, not mine. He should be here soon enough though," I said.

Dwalin nodded blankly, giving me another scrutinizing stare. "Mm... Very good, this. Anymore?" Dwalin asked, not bothering to look back at us.

"What? Uh, oh, yes, yes," Bilbo said quickly. "Ah. Help yourself."

Bilbo stood awkwardly from the chair that we were sitting in. I watched, trying very hard to stifle my laughter, as Bilbo searched for something else to feed Dwalin. He ended up spotting something in the far corner of the kitchen. Bilbo grabbed the platter and I nodded for him to bring over the plate of biscuits; he hurriedly hid two behind his back for me and himself. Dwalin began stuffing them into his mouth, making me laugh again.

"Mm. It's just that, um, I wasn't expecting company," Bilbo said.

It was very obvious that he was uncomfortable with the entire situation. The whole thing made me laugh. I had never seen Bilbo look so awkward about something. Before Dwalin got the chance to get up and say something to Bilbo, or before Bilbo could continue muttering to himself, the doorbell rang again. Bilbo looked up in alarm as I tried to hide my smile. It would be... Balin? That was who I was reasonably sure that it would be. Unless the movie lied.

"Who is that?" Bilbo asked.

"Another one of the dwarves, I believe. Or it - it could be your neighbor," I said quickly.

It was almost impossible for me to remember that I would have to be very careful not to reveal my biggest secret. I couldn't imagine how I was going to be able to keep the fact that I knew what was going to happen for fourteen months a complete secret. It was going to be very hard to not accidentally reveal who I was, where I was from, or how I knew about everything that was going to happen. It would slowly get harder and harder as time went on. I knew that much.

"That'll be the door," Dwalin said.

"Come on. I'll go with you," I told Bilbo. Before we could leave, I looked back at Dwalin. "Do you need anything else?"

"Mead, lassie, would be wonderful," Dwalin said.

"Sure."

Turning back into the kitchen, I grabbed a large tankard and filled it with the foaming drink. I would get myself one later. Right now I needed to be sober. Sober in my drug and alcohol-induced haze. It was a major Inception moment. Once I handed the tankard to Dwalin, earning a small thanks, I headed after Bilbo. He was standing at the door and I gave him a supportive nod. Bilbo opened the door and found an old, white -haired dwarf waiting and bowing. I was right about it being Balin.

"Balin, at your service."

"Hello," I chirped.

"Good evening," Bilbo greeted.

"Yes, yes it is, though I think it might rain later. Am I late?" Balin asked, walking inside.

"Late for what?" Bilbo asked.

"And you are, my dear?" Balin asked me, ignoring Bilbo.

"Leah Ambrose," I said.

"Good to meet you, Miss Ambrose," Balin said, bowing to me again.

"Just Leah, please," I said, giving a small and clumsy curtsy.

Balin gave me a long look. "I wasn't aware that anyone else was supposed to be involved in the company," Balin said.

"Gandalf will explain everything later, I'm sure," I said. "Would you like some tea?"

"Tea would be lovely," Balin said gratefully.

At least he was a little happier than Dwalin. He was definitely not as intimidating as the rest of the dwarves. It would be easier for me to get on his good side. I thought that it would, at least. He had the gift of being able to look at things from both sides. There was a sudden crack of something and we all turned to see what it was. I snorted, knowing what was coming next. Balin spotted Dwalin, who was trying to get more biscuits from Bilbo's jar on the mantle.

"Oh, ha-ha!" Balin cried, startling Dwalin. "Evening, brother. Heh, heh."

Dwalin laughed and placed the jar down. "Oh, by my beard, you are shorter and wider than last we met," Dwalin said, walking up to his brother.

"Wider, not shorter. Sharp enough for both of us," Balin said.

"They're brothers?" Bilbo whispered to me.

"I believe so," I said.

"And do you know him?" Bilbo asked, referring to Balin.

"No. I don't know any of them. I just remember Gandalf talking to me about them before we came to visit you," I said awkwardly.

The two of us turned back to watch Balin and Dwalin interact. Laughing loudly, they greeted each other amicably. At least for dwarves. I supposed that it would have been considered almost cruel for human men to greet each other the way that they did. They placed their arms on each other's shoulders before smashing their foreheads together. I gave a small grimace at the sound of the crack as Bilbo looked on in wonder.

They continued laughing as Bilbo began to chuckle awkwardly. "Uh, excuse me; sorry, I hate to interrupt, ah, but the thing is, I'm not entirely sure you're in the right house," Bilbo said.

"They're supposed to be here, Bilbo. I promise. Gandalf wanted them here," I said.

"What for?" Bilbo asked.

"Well..." I trailed off.

How did I explain that without giving away who I really was? I couldn't quite figure it out, so I chose not to say anything. Ignoring Bilbo, Dwalin and Balin walked over into Bilbo's pantry, where they immediately went to pouring ale and examining the food. I was grateful that they had at least distracted Bilbo from his previous question about what was happening and how much I knew. As they talked to each other, Bilbo continued his useless speech.

"Have you eaten?" Dwalin asked.

"It's not that I don't like visitors; I - I like visitors as much as the next Hobbit, but I do like to know them before they come visiting."

Dwalin and Balin, not listening to Bilbo, were still rifling through his pantry. "Ah, that looks very nice indeed," Balin said.

Dwalin started saying something that I couldn't quite make out over Bilbo's muttering. Balin then picked up a lump of cheese. "What's this?" Dwalin asked.

"I don't know... cheese," Balin said.

"The thing is, um ..." Bilbo continued.

"It's gone blue," Balin said.

"It's riddled with mold," Dwalin said.

"No. That type of cheese is supposed to be blue," I put in.

The two dwarves looked back at me and nodded. "Ah. Thank you, lassie," Balin said gratefully.

Slowly I nodded at him. Dwalin took the cheese and looked it over for a minute. Judging by the look on his face, I could tell that he still didn't want it. Not that I blamed him. Cheese could be a reasonably disgusting thing. And even though I knew that the cheese was perfectly edible, it was kind of gross-looking. A moment later, Dwalin tossed it out of the pantry, past Bilbo, who was still speaking confusedly, trying to get the two of them to listen to him.

"The thing is, um, I, I don't know either of you, not in the slightest. I don't mean to be blunt, but I uh, but I had to speak my mind. I'm sorry," Bilbo ranted.

Balin was still speaking but his words were indistinguishable over Bilbo's. The two dwarves finally paused and looked at Bilbo. "Hm. Apology accepted," Balin said.

"Mm!" Bilbo huffed disbelievingly.

"Ah, now fill it up, brother, don't stint," Balin said, handing Dwalin a tankard. "I could eat again, if you insist."

"What am I supposed to do about them?" Bilbo asked desperately.

"I have a feeling that they're the least of your worries right now," I whispered back.

As the two dwarves continued to fill up their tankards and speak to each other, the doorbell rang again. My heart skipped a beat. I knew this part of the movie well enough. This had always been one of my favorite parts. I knew exactly who was about to come into the hobbit-hole. Two dwarves who were destined to die. Two of the three whom I was assuming that I was supposed to save. There was Thorin, too, but I had some time before I had to meet him.

Bilbo looked at me and I gave him a comforting nod. We would have to do it at some point or another. My heart was beating quickly as Bilbo pulled open the door. Just as expected, it was the two young dwarves... My mission, I supposed. Upon seeing them, Bilbo made a small noise that sounded a bit like a moan. But my focus was on the two of them. My jaws almost dropped. They were as beautiful as they were in the movies. Both of them. Particularly the dark-haired one. Kili. Who was staring right back at me.

Maybe this drug-induced dream isn't that bad, after all.


	3. Chapter Three

For a moment we all stared at each other. Their gazes flickered to Bilbo before settling back on me. I knew that they were both watching me more closely than they were Bilbo. I stared at the two of them in awe. I had never really gotten nerdy over things like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings before. But I definitely was right now. Because those two brothers were so much more attractive than they were on the big screen. And that was saying something, since they had already been hot.

The book didn't at all do them justice and there was something so much better about seeing them in person. I couldn't believe that I was even looking at the two of them. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest and I was almost sure that they could hear it. I could certainly hear it echoing in my chest. The two dwarf men were obviously staring at me over Bilbo. Of course, they had been expecting him. Not me. And I was a woman. I assumed that they were surprised to see a woman here.

My gaze shot to Fili first as I looked him over. Almost immediately a smile appeared on my face. We had the same colored hair. In some ways, our hair was very similar. Somewhat wavy, long, with a few braids done in it. It almost made me laugh. He had a light brown fur coat over traditional Middle Earth clothing. His broadsword was strapped to his back with two hunting knives at his hip. I loved his goatee and braided mustache. He was giving me a cheesy smile that made me giggle.

Then I turned slightly to look at Kili. Automatically my smile became a little brighter. He was definitely a looker. Dwarf or not. Kili's hair was almost as long as mine but it was dark brown and hanging in slight waves. His clothes were darker and mostly leather. His sword and bow and arrow set were strapped onto his back. As I was looking him over, he was also giving me a respectful once-over. The moment our eyes met again, he gave me a smile that made me blush slightly.

"Fili."

"And Kili."

Kili looked a bit confused at the sight of Bilbo. But they were both still grinning at me. "At your service," Fili and Kili said together, going into a perfectly synchronized bow.

"You wonder how many times they've practiced that," I muttered to Bilbo.

As they straightened up, Kili grinned. "You must be Mr. Boggins," Kili said brightly.

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head. "Baggins," I corrected.

Kili's gaze shot back over to me. "Pardon me. I wasn't aware that someone else would be here," Kili said, stepping in slightly and offering me his hand. "You are?"

"Leah," I said, extending my own hand. "Leah Ambrose."

For some stupid reason, I had been expecting him to shake it. But I had to remember that we weren't back in my home anymore. This place was going to be very old-fashioned. Men thinking like cavemen with women who were homemakers and babysitters. It would be like a Middle Ages version of the fifties back home. So Kili took my hand gently in his own - oddly larger than mine - bowed again, and pressed a soft kiss against the back of my hand.

Like a sixth-grader at their first dance, my face lit up. "Pleasure, my lady," Kili said, straightening up.

"A pleasure indeed, my lady," Fili said.

He followed the same motions that Kili had just done. It was slightly less embarrassing than the one that Kili had given me, but I was still blushing softly. I guessed that I wasn't used to people doing something like that. People barely wanted to shake each other's hands back home. Here they made forward motions like that.

"Just Leah, please," I said softly.

"Finally, what promises to be good company," Kili said.

A flirt, just as I was expecting. Which would make things no easier, of course. "Charming," I laughed.

"You'll come to find that we're quite charming, Miss Ambrose," Fili said, stepping into me.

Brothers through and through. "And you'll come to call me only Leah. Miss Ambrose makes me feel like my mother. I'll beat it into you if I have to," I threatened teasingly. They both smiled.

"You'll be coming with us, then?" Kili asked, looking hopeful.

"So Gandalf says," I said carelessly.

The two brothers exchanged a look before looking back at me. "Wonderful," they said together.

That damned blush was back on my face. "Please," I said, stepping to the side to allow them through. "Won't you -?"

"Nope," Bilbo shouted, making a quick bouncing motion, "you can't come in, you've come to the wrong house."

Having been so distracted with the two good-looking brothers, I had almost forgotten that Bilbo was going to try to kick them out first. To be honest, I had kind of forgotten about Bilbo even being here and the fact that this was his home. There went me trying to keep my manners intact. Bilbo grabbed my arm and pulled me back. I stumbled back behind the threshold of the home as he tried to close the door, but Kili stopped it with his foot and pushed the door back open.

"Oh, Bilbo!" I groaned, rubbing my foot where the door had banged into it.

"What? Has it been cancelled?" Kili asked, looking concerned.

"No one told us," Fili said, looking at his brother then back at Bilbo.

"Can -?" Bilbo asked, looking at the brothers disbelievingly. "No - Nothing's been cancelled."

"Well, that's a relief," Kili said brightly.

Rolling my eyes slightly, I couldn't help the tiny giggle that escaped my mouth as the dwarf brothers pushed their way in. I tried very desperately to ignore the pointed grin that Kili was giving me. Fourteen months of this... We're only on day one. If this was real, there was no way that I could handle it for that long. Instantly the two dwarves began unloading everything into Bilbo's arms, who looked very shocked at the sudden and new turn of events. I smiled weakly at the hobbit.

"Careful with these, I just had 'em sharpened," Fili said, tossing two sheathed swords into Bilbo's arms.

"Does he look like a pack mule?" I asked.

Fili turned towards me and gave another small smile. "Well it would be rude to ask the lady to take my things," he teased.

"And it's not rude to throw your things onto a man you just met?" I asked pointedly.

"Clever, aren't you?" Fili asked, grinning.

"I like to think so," I shot back.

The two of us smiled again at each other. He was definitely nice-looking. He appeared a little bit more like a dwarf than his brother did. Slightly bulkier, definitely hairier, and a little bit larger. His nose and jawline were a bit bigger. It looked good on him though. It suited his personality. His brother was smaller in stature. His muscles weren't quite as large and he had less hair, but he was taller. In fact, Kili was about an inch or two taller than me. Fili was just a hair taller than me.

"It's nice, this place," Kili said, striding into the hallway quickly. "Did you do it yourself?"

Apparently the Blue Mountains - at least, I thought that they had been raised there - weren't nearly as nice as Hobbiton. Of course, I didn't know any place that was nearly as nice as Hobbiton. There was something charming about this place. As Fili continued handing more weapons over to Bilbo, Kili propped his feet up on the edge of a chest that was sitting up against a wall. He placed his right foot up, scraped off the mud caked onto the bottom of his shoe, and then did the same with the left.

"Ah, no, it's been in the family for years. That's my mother's glory box, can you please not do that!" Bilbo shouted, suddenly realizing what Kili was doing.

"Were you raised in a barn?" I asked, walking up behind Kili.

He turned back with impeccable grace, the bottoms of his cloak whipping around my ankles. "Pardon?" Kili asked, grinning.

"That's very old and very expensive. Perhaps wiping your boots outside on the mat before entering someone else's home would have been a better choice," I said, trying not to sound too prudish but also trying to reign in their behavior for Bilbo's sake.

Kili grinned again. "My deepest apologies," he said.

"Yes. You look very apologetic," I said, noting his excitable grin.

"Perhaps I can make it up to you?" Kili asked.

Rolling my eyes again, I laughed and leaned back against the other wall across from Kili and crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm sure that you'll find a way," I said, hoping that I sounded somewhat careless.

But I knew that I didn't. I knew that there was something in my voice that was a little weak and very excitable. Just like his. At least it's nice to know that Kili/Aidan Turner is either fascinated with me or thinks I'm as cute as I think he is. Or maybe I was just getting overexcited about the whole thing. Maybe he was just a hyperactive dwarf who was happy to see a new and reasonably friendly face. Kili was grinning at me until his gaze caught on something. My bow, sitting propped on top of Bilbo's chest.

"Is that yours?" Kili asked.

"The bow?" I asked.

"Yes," Kili said.

"That's mine," I said.

Kili smiled and leaned over to pick up the bow. I didn't bother fighting him on it. I knew that if anyone was going to treat the bow well, it was Kili. He turned it over in his hands a few times and I watched closely. He was just about as fluid with the bow as someone else would have been with their cell phone. It was like it was a part of him already, even though he had never touched it before. He tested the pull on the string for a moment before letting his grip on it loosen.

"You're an archer, then," Kili commented.

"I'm learning," I muttered, feeling a little stupid. My voice dropped off as I continued to speak. "I can hit a target... if it's stationary and ten feet away."

Kili grinned and let out a charming chuckle. "Perhaps that's how I can make it up to you," Kili offered.

"A cliché moment of you teaching me how to shoot?" I asked teasingly.

Thankfully he understood exactly what I was talking about and I hadn't made myself sound like a lunatic. "It might be cliché but it's effective," Kili said, pointing an arrow at me.

Laughing, I took the arrow and the bow and placed them both back in their spots. "And you're a good shot?" I asked.

Kili stood over me as I repacked everything. "I never miss," Kili said.

"Hmm... I might just take you up on that," I said.

"Fili, Kili, come on, give us a hand," Dwalin said, interrupting our bonding moment.

"Mister Dwalin," Kili said happily.

The dwarves were all laughing as Dwalin came up and hooked an arm over Kili's shoulder, who looked very happy to see Dwalin. I assumed that they were old friends from the Blue Mountains. But Kili's previous offer was still in my mind. Cheesy movie-romance moments aside, that was actually a good idea. Because if I could become a good enough shot, there was a good chance that I could take out Bolg and Azog before they could take out Fili, Kili, and Thorin. I would complete my mission here.

They all headed into the kitchen and dining area as I followed them. Dwalin glanced back over his shoulder to see me still standing there. "Ah, you've met Miss Ambrose," Dwalin told Kili.

"Leah!" I corrected loudly.

"Good luck beating it into him," Fili teased, walking up behind me.

"Oh, funny," I shot back.

"Would you mind getting us a few tankards, lassie?" Dwalin asked.

My jaws set together. "Do I look like a waitress?" I hissed. The four dwarves stared at me. Shit. What the hell do they call waitresses here? "Barmaid?" I tried.

Fili sensed the tension in the room. "We've got them. Not to worry, Leah," Fili said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Let's shove this in the hallway, otherwise we'll never get everyone in," Balin said.

He was standing in the opening of the hallway that led into the kitchen and dining room. I watched as the four men headed back into the room to start moving everything into its place. At least, their version of the place. Bilbo was following them with his arms still loaded from all of Fili's weapons and provisions. In the meantime, the dwarves were preparing to shift Bilbo's furniture around to create a meeting and feasting place that would quickly be destroyed.

"Ev eryone? How many more are there?" Bilbo asked breathlessly.

"Like I said, there are a number of them," I muttered back.

"Where do you want this?" Kili asked in the background.

Turning towards Bilbo, I smiled weakly. "You might like their new arrangement more than you liked your old one," I offered.

Bilbo gave me an exasperated shake of the head. "I somehow doubt that. Can you take the two younger ones?" Bilbo asked. I raised an eyebrow curiously, wondering what he meant. "I'll handle the older ones. We can get them at least out of the dining room and slowly get them -"

But the ring of the doorbell cut off whatever Bilbo was about to say. Something about getting them out, I was sure. I felt a little bit badly for Bilbo. Because he was about to meet the rest of the company. Save Thorin, of course. The doorbell rang very hard and longer than before. They were apparently getting very impatient outside. Bilbo, in anger, walked quickly toward the door, dumping all the swords and weapons and other equipment in his arms along the way.

"Oh no. No, no! There's nobody home. Go away, and bother somebody else. There's far too many dwarves in my dining room as it is. If - If - If this is some clotthead's idea of a joke, ha-ha, I can only say, it is in very poor taste," Bilbo shouted.

Concerned for him, I followed Bilbo back out towards the door. "I promise that it's not a joke," I said quickly.

"Is this Gandalf?" Bilbo asked.

"Yes. Sorry about all of this," I said, motioning to the chaos that the four of them had already managed to create.

Preparing myself for the even bigger disaster that was sure to come, I nodded for Bilbo to open the door. He irritably gazed at the green wood before pulling it open. I wanted to warn him, but I couldn't have done that without giving away that I had known that it would happen. So an entire heap of dwarves, eight to be exact, fell into the entryway. Struggling to get up, they grumbled and yelled at each other, shouting some expletives in English and what I assumed was Khuzdul. Gandalf was standing behind them.

"Gandalf," Bilbo breathed exasperatedly.

As the twelve dwarves tried to get back to their feet, Gandalf stepped over them and entered the threshold of the home. "Ah. Leah. I see the two of you have gotten on rather well," Gandalf said, spotting how close I was standing to the hobbit.

"Yes. We have. Might I suggest that we take this party outside?" I asked, seeing Bilbo's horrified expression.

"Nonsense! It's about to rain," Gandalf said.

"Sorry. I tried," I told Bilbo.

"Come in, everyone!" Gandalf called.

"No, no! No one else is coming into my home!" Bilbo shouted.

Of course that didn't work very well. As the dwarves entered the home, I heard them shouting at each other and saw the number of glances that were being shot my way. There was some muttering about me being Bilbo's wife, but I knew that those would be put to an end quickly. The entire group of dwarves, all twelve of them, even those whom had been calm a few moments ago, began raiding Bilbo's pantry and taking out all his food.

The whole scene was almost comical. But I knew that it would have been the wrong time to start laughing at Bilbo, considering how distressed he was and how horrible I would have found the scene if it was my own home. I would have lost my mind if they were doing the same thing in my kitchen. And my parents... Oh, they would have had a cow. Bilbo was running after them, changing direction every time he saw someone taking something else, trying to tell them to put it back, but they ignored him.

"Why don't you go and get changed? I'll see if I can handle them," I reassured Bilbo.

"Oh, thank you, Leah," Bilbo said, letting out a little breath.

"My pleasure," I said sweetly.

That was all that it took for Bilbo to dart off. He was wearing his bathrobe and his pajamas underneath that he had changed into once we had come back from the marketplace. He sprinted into the back of the home so that he could change back into his previous clothes. I turned back to the dwarves, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. It would have been a little hard to shout over all of them. I supposed that I could try Fili and Kili first...

"You two seem to be getting along," Gandalf said, startling me.

He had appeared over my shoulder and I turned back to scowl at him. "Yes. Thank you for leaving me here earlier!" I shouted angrily.

"You're welcome," Gandalf said.

"Sarcasm, Gandalf. You're going to give poor Bilbo a heart attack," I said, motioning around to everything that was happening.

"He's going to be fine. It's just for one night," Gandalf said.

"You are aware how long this journey is going to take, correct?" I asked sharply.

"Of course," Gandalf said.

"Could you at least get the dwarves to try and behave themselves?" I asked.

"You have seen this part before?" Gandalf asked.

To be fair, it had always been one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie. It had always seemed so funny. "Yes," I said slowly.

Gandalf nodded, walking off. I followed him closely, trying to duck and jump out of the way of the wandering dwarves. "Then you know that this party will not end with just a few words. Let the dwarves get some steam out," Gandalf said carelessly.

"Why don't we do this in your home?" I asked sharply.

"I'm a wandering wizard," Gandalf said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Exactly. Outside!" I barked, motioning out the door.

"Have yourself a glass of wine, Leah. Relax for a little while," Gandalf said.

Rolling my eyes, I turned to the side and made a move to leave. "I think that this is one of the least relaxing atmospheres that I've had to deal with in a long time," I said, motioning around to the chaos.

"Come and join the party, Leah," Kili teased, appearing at my side.

"Now you're just going to be annoying about it," I said.

"It's part of my charm," Kili said, giving me a bright smile.

"Kili!" Dwalin shouted, interrupting our moment. "Come help."

Kili gave me a little wink before stalking off to help Dwalin with whatever he needed. Gandalf reappeared at my side again. "I see that Master's Kili and Fili have taken to you well," Gandalf commented.

For whatever reason, my face started to burn. "Are you going to play matchmaker now?" I asked irritably.

"Pardon?" Gandalf asked.

"Nothing. My world slang," I muttered.

The moment that I turned away, I realized that someone was still watching me. Kili. He was trying to help move something with Fili and Dwalin. He turned back to me for just long enough to give another charming smile. My face started to burn again as I rolled my eyes at myself. He's just messing with you. But he was just as charming in real life as he was in the movies. That was why I had always had a crush on his character. But it was even worse now that I was here and could speak to him.

But my head kept drifting off to other places as I tried to keep some hint of order in the room. Not that it was very easy. The dwarves were like rowdy little children. None of them were listening to me, most were trying to get me to bring them something that they needed, and the few that were treating me nicely were telling me to take a seat and join the party. As much as I would have liked to do that, I had made a promise to try and help Bilbo keep his home in one piece.

Slowly my mind drifted off to one of the many things that I couldn't figure out. Tauriel. It would be a number of months before we arrived at Mirkwood. On one hand, I had always liked Tauriel. Despite the fact that she wasn't in the book, I had always liked her character. She was strong and reasonably funny. Definitely very pretty. But if I was going to get the chance, even in my dream, I was going to go for Kili before they ever got the chance to meet. Plus Legolas had a thing for her. Let the two elves get a fair shot.

There was also the little fact that - at least in the films - Kili had died trying to defend Tauriel from an attack by Bolg. He had only gone there because he was trying to protect the woman that he loved. If they were never romantically involved, maybe Tauriel wouldn't even be there. Maybe I could stop his death that way. But in the novel he had died trying to protect Thorin. Both Kili and Fili would die that way. Would their deaths go to the way of the book or the film?

So far everything had been based off of the films. But what if there was a chance that some of the book started coming into play? I didn't remember the book nearly as well as I did the films. Mostly because I hadn't read the book in a number of years. At least I had seen the films recently. There was a little stab of pain above my eyebrow and I groaned, placing two of my fingers there and pressing down. I could feel one of my infamous stress headaches coming on.

As I gently rubbed at my temple, trying to keep the headache from getting worse (which wasn't easy, considering how loud the dwarves were being in the other room) I closed my eyes. It was getting harder and harder to remember that this was just some crazy dream. It was impossible for me to remind myself that this was going to end soon enough. Likely before we even left the Shire. But I wasn't in The Hobbit. I just had a stupid crush on one of the actors.

"Miss? Are you alright?" someone asked.

My eyes slowly peeled open. The voice was squeaky and high-pitched. As I glanced down at the dwarf standing in front of me, I realized that it was Ori. He was one of the few that I knew by name. He had almost a bowl haircut in the front. But there were braids throughout the front of his hair and he had a long, evenly-layered, beard. He was wearing a maroon tunic and gray scarf. He was giving me a small smile that I returned. He still looked concerned for me. He was absolutely adorable.

"Oh, yes. Sorry. Headache," I said, waving him off.

"Can I get you something?" Ori asked.

"No, thank you. I'm alright." I stepped forward and extended my hand. "I'm Leah. Leah Ambrose," I said.

Ori smiled and gave my hand a polite shake. Ori was the sweet kind of dwarf, where Fili and Kili were the playful kind. "Ori. Nice to meet you, Miss Leah," Ori said sweetly.

"We're all going to have to have a chat about this," I sighed to myself. "Leah, only, please. It makes me feel too old if you call me Miss Leah."

"Of course, Leah," Ori said, obviously having a hard time saying just my first name.

"It's good to meet you, Ori," I said brightly.

It would be fun to be friendly with Ori. He was so cute! "Do you live here?" Ori asked, motioning around to the home. "Pardon us for destroying your home."

Laughing softly, I waved my hand around carelessly. "No. This isn't my home. Bilbo Baggins. It's his home," I said, trying to find Bilbo. But he must have still been in his room. "I'm just here because... I guess I'm not completely sure why I'm here. I think that Gandalf wants me to be a part of the company."

"Really?" Ori asked, surprised.

"Yes," I said.

"What for?"

"Pardon?"

It would not be easy to get over the whole, woman-in-a-man's-world thing. "Well..." Ori trailed off, starting to stutter and turn bright red. "I didn't - I don't - I mean -"

"Relax, Ori," Fili said, walking up and placing an arm on Ori's shoulder. "Leah won't bite. You truly are here to accompany us?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I nodded. "That's what Gandalf tells me. Although I don't plan to be washing your clothes, singing you to sleep, or cooking your dinners," I said sharply.

"I wouldn't have expected that you would," Fili said.

"Is that so?" I asked confusedly.

How could he tell that I wasn't a normal woman? At least, normal for Middle Earth. "Oh, no. I recognize that look in your eyes," Fili teased, motioning to my face.

"That look?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Desire for adventure," Fili explained playfully.

"Ah. You must be familiar with it. You have it, too," I teased, stepping into him.

Fili grinned madly. "That I do," he said.

Suddenly Kili appeared in between the two, throwing an arm over Fili's shoulder and sharing in his grin. It was going to be difficult getting used to the two of them doing things like that. I knew that I would rarely be able to have a private conversation or serious moment with the two of them around.

"We all do," Kili said.

"First time venturing out on your own?" I asked the boys.

"Not quite on our own," Kili said.

So that meant that they had done smaller scaled adventures and hunts. "First adventure, then?" I asked.

"Of this scale, yes," Fili explained.

"And you?" Kili asked.

If you count international competitions where I get the beat the life out of total strangers for fun and money. "I've been on a number of adventures before. But never anything like this. Nothing of this scale," I said, motioning around to the disaster that was raging on.

"Nervous?" Kili teased.

"Of course not. Are you?" I shot back.

"Of course not. And you have thirteen dwarves to protect you," Kili said brightly.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Kili and Fili were puffing out their chests. I snorted under my breath and shook my head. They were such clowns. When a small grin appeared on my face, I grinned guiltily. Because I quickly realized that it was the other way around. Maybe early on they could protect me, but later on, during the Battle of the Five Armies, I would have to protect the two of them. Azog and Bolg would have to die if I wanted to succeed in changing whatever the Valar wanted me to change.

"I certainly hope you don't mean yourself," I teased, trying to forget about what I was going to have to do.

"We'll get along just fine," Fili said, laughing at my comment towards Kili.

"Miss Leah -" Ori started.

"Just Leah," Fili, Kili, and I all said at once.

"Shut up!" I barked at the two brothers, who both started laughing. I turned back to Ori a moment later. "Honestly though, Ori, if I'm going to call you all by just your first names, you'll have to do the same."

"I will work on it M - Leah," Ori corrected himself bashfully.

"Better," I said sweetly. As I turned back, I saw one of the dwarves drop a few pieces of something like lamb. "You know, I don't think that you and your friends have made quite enough of a mess of Bilbo's home."

"This is nothing," Fili said.

"You should see a dinner in the Blue Mountains," Kili said.

That must have been quite the show. It was something that I would have loved to see. But it couldn't have been worse than some of our family dinners back in my own world. Between the family drama - with divorces and new relationships - my grandmother shouting at my parents about how inappropriate it was for me to be a fighter rather than a housewife, and all of the questions about when I would get married or have children, we had always tried to avoid having a big get-together on the holidays.

"I would actually love that. And it couldn't be worse than a holiday dinner with my own family," I said, recalling my conversation with my grandmother about how I was nowhere near ready to get married and how I wasn't going to end up sad and alone.

"Oh?" Kili asked.

"Story for another night, perhaps. I imagine that it will take a while to get to our... destination," I said, unsure if I was supposed to say that I knew about the journey.

"Do you know of the journey?" Fili asked curiously.

"I do. Gandalf told me," I explained cautiously.

"And you'll still be going?" Fili asked.

"It didn't sound like Gandalf was giving me much of a choice," I said, laughing softly.

"How do you know Gandalf?" Kili asked curiously.

I was plastered when I fell through the veil into Middle Earth and Gandalf found me to explain that I'm supposed to save your lives. "He found me when I was... in a bad place. He's been taking care of me since then. So now I just kind of do whatever he suggests that I do. This has been his newest suggestion," I said somewhat awkwardly.

"It'll be dangerous, you know," Fili said playfully.

"I'm counting on it," I said.

"There might be Orcs," Kili added, coming to stand on one side.

"Promises, promises," I half-sang.

"And Wargs," Fili said, coming to my other side.

"One can only hope," I said.

"Man-eating trolls," Kili tried.

"Oh, I've always wanted to meet one," I said brightly.

"Repulsive goblins," Fili said.

"Can't be any worse than your eating habits." It was enough to make the two dwarves laugh. "Try anything that you like, boys. I'm not scared off that easily," I said, pushing them away.

"Just wait. We'll get you," Kili said.

"I wouldn't hold your breath," I shot back.

The two boys made me smile. Before they could continue harassing me, Gandalf called out for me. "Miss Ambrose. Come speak with me for a moment," he said, over the cries of the rest of the company.

"Pardon me," I said, trying to push past the two of them. "Try not to break anything. I don't think Bilbo's doing well with all of this so far."

"Of course not -" Kili started.

Kili and Fili exchanged a look. "Miss Ambrose," they said together.

"Hysterical," I snapped.

The two of them smiled again and I rolled my eyes. At least there would be a few people around here that would be able to make me smile on this adventure before I woke up. So I walked away from Kili and Fili before fighting my way through the dwarves, who were running back and forth, having a very hard time getting up to the front of the home where Gandalf was waiting for me. Couldn't meet me halfway, could you? I finally managed to push past two dwarves, whose names I couldn't remember.

"You're going to give him a heart attack, you know?" I asked Gandalf, referring to Bilbo.

"I believe that Master Baggins will be just fine," Gandalf said.

"Did you need something?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You seem to already be integrating yourself well enough with the dwarves," Gandalf commented.

"I've only really spoken to three of them," I said.

"They seem to have liked you," Gandalf said.

It felt like he was trying to infiltrate my private life, like my crazy older family members. "Well they're the three youngest dwarves. It only makes sense that they would get along with me," I mumbled dumbly.

"Yes. I suppose that's the truth," Gandalf said absentmindedly.

"What's that supposed to mean, old man?" I asked sharply.

"Absolutely nothing. Just the lunatic ravings of an old man," Gandalf said, waving me off.

My eyes narrowed at him. There was definitely something going on here. "So I've noticed. How am I supposed to interact with the rest of them?" I asked. Gandalf stared at me uncomprehendingly. "It would help to have them on my side before Thorin gets here. To help convince him that I need to be brought along."

"Introduce yourself at dinner," Gandalf suggested.

"And how am I supposed to get a word in edgewise?" I asked, shouting my words to prove my point.

"I guarantee that they will want to speak with you," Gandalf said.

Feeling a little overwhelmed, I nodded and stepped back towards the door. "Right. I'm going to get some fresh air. I'll be right back," I called back to Gandalf.

"Don't be out long," Gandalf said.

"Not like anything that terrible could happen to me in my own dream," I muttered.

"You might want to give that up," Gandalf said.

"Whatever," I snarled.

Rolling my eyes very childishly, I turned and headed out of the home. I knew that I wasn't handling things very well, but someone had drugged me and now I was finding myself trapped inside The Hobbit. I supposed that it could have been worse. I could have been trapped in The Hunger Games or the middle of some city on The Purge night. If I was being fair, there were far worse places that I could have wound up than in The Hobbit. Of course, I could have ended up somewhere that I didn't have to save someone!

But it was just a dream. I was getting out of here soon enough. I just had to keep reminding myself of that. On my way out of Bilbo's home, I grabbed my bow and arrow set. It was trapped under most of the dwarves' things, which I merely kicked and threw out of my way. They would get over it. I finally pushed my way out of the home and instantly breathed out in relief. It was much quieter and easier to breathe outside than in the overstuffed house.

Instantly I glanced up. The stars were shining brightly and I smiled. Living in a large city, there was too much light pollution for me to ever see the stars. They were beautiful here. I just wished that I knew if they were the same stars that we had back home. I stared at them for a few minutes before letting out a deep breath and walking over to an apple tree at the edge of Bilbo's yard. I wasn't far from it. Maybe twelve feet or so. But I would have to start with something.

Taking the bow in one hand and slinging the arrows over one shoulder, I pulled out an arrow. Nocking it in the right place and pulling the string back, I shot my first one off. I had to make sure that I was an ace shot before we made it to the Battle of the Five Armies. If I could take out Azog and Bolg at one point or another, I wouldn't even have to worry about Fili, Kili, and Thorin losing their lives during the battle. I could change things before we even got that far.

My perfect chance would be after the goblin cave. I just had to be a master shot by then. I shot off another three arrows as a few minutes passed. Each one hit the tree but none of them were totally on their mark. A knot in the middle of the tree. The arrows were close but they could have been much closer. They would have missed a Warg Rider easily. Damn me. I just had to be hopeful that, with time, I would get better. It would just take me some time. But I had that. In the meantime, it would be okay.

Even though I had barely known the dwarves for an hour, I was already thinking rather highly about some of them. I tried to relax myself as I continued shooting, but it was hard. How many times had Mike told me that I needed to relax if I wanted to have an easier fight? A million times before. But that advice had never come easily. And it was even harder right now. Maybe it was because I could already feel ab unfortunate little bond forming with Fili and Kili. Two of the dwarves who were destined to die.

Being close to them was only a constant reminder of what I was going to have to do to stop whatever it was that the Valar wanted me to stop. What was it that they even wanted me to stop? I couldn't think for the life of me. The War of the Ring? Maybe. But Bilbo was still destined to pick up the One Ring from Gollum when we met the Goblin King in a few weeks. I shook my head as I missed another shot. I had never felt so much like a nerd.

Try and think about something else. Thinking about the future just gave me another headache. So my thoughts tracked back to Fili and Kili. There was another little issue that the two of them were like teenagers, despite the fact that I knew that they were older. I didn't know their exact ages, but their actors were in their... thirties? Right? I supposed that it didn't matter. What mattered was that they were very playful and very flirtatious, Kili especially. And it really didn't help that I was attracted to him already.

What would my family have thought if they could see me right now? They would have been laughing to see how not very well I was handling things. Would my mother have even cared? If it didn't have anything to do with her stunningly popular law firm, I wasn't so sure that she would have cared. The only time that she would have cared was if she thought that I was in danger. My father wouldn't have cared about my problems but he would have enjoyed being able to swing a sword around.

They loved me. I knew that much. But I was sure that they didn't really care about all of this. Like I had said, they wouldn't have cared unless I was hurt. As for Harley... she would have thought that this whole thing was hilarious. She would have been loving it right up until we had to go into battle. She would love having Fili and Kili around. She had always thought that they were charming. In fact, they were her favorite part of the movie. They were the only reason that she had gone tonight, was it?

It felt like days had passed, even though it had only been a few hours since I had arrived in Hobbiton. And what would my friends be thinking of me right now? Amber would have been my partner in crime. Flirting with Fili as I flirted with Kili. It would have worked perfectly. Layla definitely would have been having fun, but she wouldn't be focused on the men. She had been dating someone for a long time. She would have been having fun, though. Jessica would have been quietly helping me deal with everything.

Between the three of them, I would have had things much easier. It was a little too hard being here without anyone that I actually knew. Then my brain turned to Brian, which was not something that I wanted to think about. He would have been so upset with me if he had realized that I had barely thought about him since arriving in Middle Earth. I had been more concerned with dwarves whom I barely knew. And I had definitely been flirting with Kili. Brian wouldn't have appreciated that.

As the minutes ticked on, I fired more and more arrows. I had already almost gone through my entire first sheath. As I continued firing, hitting a few inches off of my mark, I found myself more relaxed than I had been in months. That was despite the fact that I was in some drug-induced hallucination that felt oddly realistic. There was a small crack of a branch behind me and I whirled around. It likely wasn't anything dangerous in Hobbiton, but just in case. My arrow was aimed at the culprit of the cracking branch.

Just in case it was something unfriendly. But it was just Kili. I relaxed just the slightest bit. He wouldn't do anything to me. I genuinely believed that. He was a good-mannered man. Dwarf. Whatever. But he was giving me a grin that made me feel a small stirring in my gut that I hadn't felt in a long time. He was leaned up against the side of a tree not far from me. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was giving me a sideways grin.

"You'll miss if you shoot," Kili teased.

"Don't tempt me," I teased, letting up on my grip on the string. I kept the arrow nocked but made no indication that I would fire it at him. Like he said, I would miss. "How long have you been watching?"

"Just a few minutes," Kili said. Thankfully I didn't speak to myself out loud. "You're not bad."

"Oh, thank you," I said irritably.

"How long have you practiced?" Kili asked.

"Not long at all, actually," I admitted. Kili raised a brow. "I think I fired a bow a few times when I was a teenager. And I fired this one for the first time earlier today."

Now Kili looked surprised, raising an eyebrow. "This is only the second time you've shot a bow?" he asked.

"Impressed?" I teased.

"Honestly?" Kili asked. I nodded at him. "I am. You're better than I was when I first started."

"You were a kid when you started, weren't you?" I asked.

"Yes," Kili said confusedly.

"Well I'm an adult. I have a little better control than a kid would," I pointed out.

"So I see." Kili watched me closely as he strolled around to come to stand next to me. "Are you going to fire or just stand there?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest again.

"With you watching me?" I asked, feeling embarrassed.

"That's the whole point of learning. Come on," Kili said, motioning for me to raise up the bow.

"Okay," I muttered.

Slowly I turned back to where I had been standing before. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest from nerves. I had never liked people watching me before. Not during fights, not while I was shooting, and not while I was thinking. It didn't help that Kili was very attractive and obviously very confident in his actions. It took me a lot longer to set up my new shot. I was nervous that he was standing so close to me. I was nervous that he was watching me, as stupid as that thought was. It wasn't real.

There was no reason for me to be nervous about a figment of my imagination. I placed my legs shoulder width apart, keeping my torso, hips and the rest of my body turned perpendicular towards the tree. A moment later I seated the arrow back on the rest, nocked it, and lifted the bow. Keeping the bow at shoulder height, I tried to make sure that my bow arm was straight and locked at the elbow. Slowly I pulled the string back, until it reached the corner of my jaw. Before I could fire, Kili started laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked tersely.

Kili walked up to my side. "You're too tense. Relax your grip. You're going to fire too high," Kili advised.

There was that warning about having my arms too tense again. I seemed to always be getting that warning. From Kili and Mike. Maybe this was my mind's way of warning me to listen to Mike about what he was telling me. To my surprise, Kili moved forward and laid a hand on my shoulders. They were large and rough. For some reason, that surprised me. His touch made me skin tingle, despite the fact that my tunic was between the two of us. His touch made me very slowly relax.

"Better?" I asked, much weaker than I meant to.

"Much," Kili said. His voice was as low as mine. Maybe we didn't want to ruin the moment. "Your anchor point. It's too low for you. Move it up to the corner of your mouth."

My heart skipped a beat as Kili's fingers wrapped around my own. He grabbed my fingers and slowly pulled them back, rearranging my grip. He moved the string of the bow up to the side of my mouth, his fingers just briefly brushing the corner of my mouth. My entire body felt like it was on fire. I suddenly realized just how bored I was with Brian. Because he never made me feel like this. Not from just a simple touch. Not from anything. Not unless I was drunk, which really wasn't a good sign.

"Stop holding so long," Kili said, breaking the moment.

He was still standing right beside me. "I'm aiming," I snapped.

Kili blew out a puff of air that sounded like a laugh. "Have faith in yourself. You might be a little better than you think that you are. Keep the tension in your back," Kili advised. He pressed a hand against my shoulder-blades and I tensed up. Not from his advice but from his touch. "That's the only place that you want it."

"Am I good?" I whispered.

"Fire. See that knot right there?" Kili asked, motioning off into the distance.

"In the tree almost twenty feet away?" I asked, following his line of sight.

"Yes. Hit it."

"It's too far."

"Do you want to wait until an Orc is ten feet away to fire at them?" Kili asked. I stayed silent, knowing that he had caught me. "You can do it. I saw the way that you were shooting. You're just not pushing yourself. Get out of your comfort zone."

"You sound like my... teacher," I trailed off, unsure of what I should call Mike.

"Teacher?" Kili asked.

"Story for -"

"Another night?" Kili interrupted.

"Yes," I said, smiling.

"Come on. Quit stalling. Shoot," Kili teased, nudging me gently.

Rearranging myself, I pulled back the string again and followed his instructions, making sure that I was using the right anchor point that he had shown me. Kili reached around and gently rotated my elbow to make sure that I was going to fire into the right place. It might not be perfect, but I would be closer with his help. I took two deep breaths before letting the shot off. My fingers slipped off of the string and I watched as the arrow went straight into the bottom of the knot that I was aiming for.

It was my closest shot by far. I laughed softly and turned back to Kili, who was watching me with a small smile and bright eyes. He must have been pleased that his teaching skills had helped me. I was thrilled that I had managed to really hit my first mark. Maybe I would be able to save him. All of them. I excitedly threw myself into Kili and gave him a tight hug, feeling immediately and stupidly embarrassed for my actions. So I quickly stepped back and out of Kili's arms, who had been hugging me back.

A large blush fell over my face. "Thank you," I said sheepishly.

"Not a problem. I can help you out more, if you'd like?" Kili asked.

"Yeah. Yes. I would like that," I stuttered dumbly.

If I wanted any chance of being a good marksmen, I would have to learn from someone who was much better than I was. And that person was Kili. Which, of course, would only make a hard deal even harder. We would grow closer as we spent more time together. But I smiled at him anyways - a smile that he immediately returned - as Kili moved to help me collect my arrows from the tree trunks that I had been firing at before. Once we had everything, Kili handed my arrows back.

"You're not half-bad, you know?" Kili said.

My grin grew a little bit. Even without help, he thought that I was reasonably good. "I like to think that I'm pretty good. Honestly I'm better at hand-to-hand combat. Wrestling, I suppose," I said, knowing that I couldn't say mixed martial arts.

"Is that so?" Kili asked, looking intrigued.

"Yes. I've been trained for a long time," I said brightly.

Kili laughed, looking at me with a bright grin. "A woman who can wrestle?" he asked.

My teeth ground together slightly. Relax. That's just the way that he was raised. "Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean that I can't be good at fighting," I said slowly.

"I think that you've already proven that much. You're that good, then?" Kili asked.

"Don't believe me?" I shot back.

"I'd like to see it," Kili grinned.

"I'm sure that you would," I said slowly.

My heart skipped a beat as a funny thought occurred to me. The thought of the two of us wrestling. Suddenly every thought that I had was enough to make my cheeks burn and force me to look away from him. The last thing that I needed was to accidentally let it slip for what I was talking about. He would likely never look at me again. I wouldn't even be able to look at him again. When I finally met his eyes again, he was still looking at me. The two of us gave each other a quick smile, the chirping birds the only noise.

A loud shout forced the two of us to step back from each other. "Come on, you two!" Fili shouted. I just realized how close the two of us were standing together. "Dinner time!"

"Be right there!" Kili yelled back.

My heart was hammering in my chest. I had just now realized how close together the two of us were standing. Far closer than I had ever meant to stand near him. Kili shouted something in what I assumed was Khuzdul back at Fili. The dwarf language. I couldn't be sure what he was saying, since that wasn't a line in the movie or novel. Fili laughed and shouted something back. I was the odd person out. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously as I watched the two of them speak.

"Secrets don't make friends," I teased Kili.

Kili grinned and stepped into me. "So start telling me yours," he goaded.

"How long have we known each other?" I asked.

The look on Kili's face told me that he understood my point. We both laughed as I shook my head and Kili placed a hand behind my back, pushing me to walk. "Come on," Kili said.

Smiling somewhat awkwardly at him, I nodded and walked back inside Bilbo's home. Fili was watching me with a sideways grin as I rolled my eyes and shoved past him, dropping my bow and sheath of arrows back inside of Bilbo's trunk to ensure that the dwarves wouldn't do anything to them. Not that I thought that they would. Kili walked off with Fili, the two of them speaking lowly and laughing. In the meantime I walked off to where Bilbo was running back and forth frantically.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"They're destroying everything!" Bilbo cried.

Smiling guiltily, I shook my head. "I'm afraid to say that I think that it's a little too late to do anything but wait and hope that they calm down," I said sweetly. I was already well aware that this wasn't going to end until the night was over. "Maybe clean up after themselves when it's all over."

"Absolutely not!" Bilbo shouted, horrified. "I'll have no food left."

"They've already eaten through most of it. Just take a look," I said guiltily.

That was enough to cause Bilbo to whip back around in horror. Obviously he hadn't really seen what they were doing while they were getting busy for their dinner party. It did surprise me that the dwarves didn't even think to ask if it was okay that they start eating Bilbo's food or moving his furniture. As Bilbo tried to stop everything from happening, I noticed that the dwarves were rooting through Bilbo's pantry to grab all of the food that he had. Some of them were also cooking.

"We'll take this one," one of the dwarves said.

As Bilbo started to tuck in his shirt, walking out of the hallway, he spotted Bombur with a plate of food. "Excuse me. That's my chicken." But Bombur ignored him. "Umm... If - If you don't... That's my wine! Excuse me!" Bilbo shouted.

It was the only time that I could have barely heard what Bilbo was saying over everyone else. But Bilbo had picked a fight with the wrong dwarf. It was a dwarf with an axe in his head. I gasped slightly and stumbled backwards. Had that been in the movie? I must not have recognized it if it was. All I knew was that he didn't look happy with Bilbo for putting a hand on him. He leaned into Bilbo as I stepped back, listening to him snarl something in Khuzdul.

The longer that I listened to him make some type of comment about likely what he thought of Bilbo's actions and comments, I realized that it definitely was Khuzdul. It sounded just like the language that Fili and Kili were speaking earlier. I hoped that the dwarves wouldn't speak in it too often. After a moment I did manage to recall something about an axe getting lodged in his head and now only being able to speak in Khuzdul. I guessed that I wouldn't become too friendly with whatever his name was.

The dwarf pointed to his head before huffing and turning away. "He's got... an injury," another dwarf said from behind me, causing us to jump in surprise.

"You mean the axe in his head?" Bilbo asked, making a dumbfounded face.

The dwarf (Oin, maybe?) raised an ear trumpet to Bilbo. "Dead?" he asked. "No. Only between his ears. His legs work fine."

Oin walked off as Bilbo turned in a circle, stupefied. I snorted under my breath. "I'll have some of that, too!" one off the dwarves - Dwalin, it sounded like - shouted from the pantry.

Suddenly a long line of dwarves started walking past us. Bilbo paused where he was and motioned to everything that they were taking. "Put those back. Put that back. Those are my plates! Excuse me! Not my wine. Put that back. Put that back! Not the jam, please! Excuse me," Bilbo was shouting.

As to be expected, the dwarves were completely ignoring him. I felt terribly for Bilbo. Here he was, having his home ransacked by complete strangers. To me it was funny. Because this was a dream of a movie scene. But this was really his home and he was really having it pillaged. The line of dwarves vanished as Bilbo turned back to see what else was happening. Bombur then walked out of the pantry with three entire wheels of cheese in his arms. It was very hard to not laugh.

"Excuse me. A tad excessive, isn't it? Have you got a cheese knife?" Bilbo asked as Bombur ignored him.

"Cheese knife?" Bofur asked, strolling up from behind Bilbo. "He eats it by the block."

Then he stalked off, still holding a plate of ham. As Bilbo groaned and searched for someone else to harass about putting things back in their places, I glanced back behind me. Almost immediately I noticed that Fili and Kili were working to open a barrel that likely contained something like mead or ale. Well I might not be a spectacular archer, but I've been to a fair number of parties before. Maybe that was what the Valar wanted me to do. I grinned and walked over to them. It was like tapping a keg.

"You boys need help?" I asked.

They both glanced back from where they had been kneeling down. Kili was looking at the top of the barrel as Fili was kneeled down in front of it. Fili glanced back and grinned. "I think we can handle this, fair maiden," he teased.

"Evidently not. Step back," I ordered.

To my surprise, they did. It made me smirk slightly. It was just like a keg. I pulled off the wooden cap from the fixture on top of the keg. This was older-fashioned than anything else I had done, but I knew the motions. I grabbed the funny-looking tap from Fili and lined the notches up with the hole at the top of the keg. I pushed down and slid the tap into place. Keeping the pressure, I spun the metal tap into place. Once it had turned completely into place, it locked from the pressure.

Turning back to Fili and Kili, who were now able to pour a tankard, I grinned proudly. "Now why couldn't you have figured that out?" Fili asked, whopping Kili on the shoulder.

"I didn't see you doing it!" Kili shouted.

"Our hero," Fili teased.

"You're right. You will be useful on our quest," Kili said.

Rolling my eyes, I shoved the two brothers off of me. "You're hilarious. It's like you two have never tapped a keg," I said, snorting under my breath.

The moment that I had said it, I knew that I shouldn't have. Why the hell had I said something like that? Kegs didn't exist in this realm. Maybe they did, but not those kinds of kegs. Definitely not the ones that I was used to. The only reason that I had known how to do one of those was because they were all reasonably similar. And the only reason that I had said it was because they slightly reminded me of the kind of fraternity brothers that I actually liked.

"Done a what?" Fili asked.

"Nothing. Just something that we used to say back home," I said, waving him off.

"Where is home?" Kili asked curiously.

"Another time," Kili and I said together.

Laughing softly, I nodded. I needed some time to figure everything out about my supposed 'story' here in Middle Earth. "I'll be back. Pour me a tankard, yeah?" I asked.

Fili and Kili exchanged a small grin. "Absolutely," Fili said.

As the two of them went to picking up the keg to carry it off, I smiled at them. At least there was going to be something to help me get through this crazy dream. I knew that I shouldn't have been drinking while I was already drunk but I couldn't help it. There was something about the partying atmosphere that always got me in the mood for some fun. Of course, Bilbo was always one to stop the fun. Oin and... Gloin, I thought, were walking through the hall carrying chairs from one of Bilbo's rooms.

"No, no, that's Grandpa Mungo's chair! No, I'm sorry, you'll have to take it back, please," Bilbo said, grabbing the chair from Oin's hands and pushing it back. "Take it back... It's antique, not for sitting on! Thank you!"

"I cannot hear what you're saying!" Oin yelled.

"That's a book, not a coaster. Put that map down, thank you."

Without a free hand and without being able to grab the ear trumpet, there was no way that Bilbo's words were going to do anything helpful. In the meantime, the dwarves were continuing to bring all of Bilbo's food and furniture into the dining room. I hoped that they were at least going to leave some money for Bilbo to restock all of his food. Not that he would need it. As I approached Gandalf, another dwarf, Dori, I had heard one of them called him, approached Gandalf with a tray and some tea.

"Excuse me, Mr. Gandalf, can I tempt you with a nice cup of chamomile tea?" Dori asked.

"Oh, no thank you, Dori," Gandalf said. So I was right about the name. "A little red wine for me, I think."

"And you, Miss?" Dori asked.

"I believe that Fili and Kili are getting me a tankard. But a cup of tea would be lovely for now," I said politely.

"Here you are," Dori said, handing me a cup.

"Thank you," I chirped.

Dori gave me a sweet smile before turning and walking away from me, likely to go get that glass of wine. As I turned back, I saw that Gandalf was now walking out into the dining room, ducking through corners, trying to avoid the scurrying dwarves. As someone knocked into his side, Gandalf turned back, only to back straight into the chandelier. I laughed as he tried to straighten it out. A moment later Gandalf settled in his place and motioned to me to come with him.

I walked into the hall as Gandalf started to count on his fingers. "Ah, Miss Ambrose. Come. Let's see... Fili, Kili," Gandalf said. The brothers looked up at him from carrying the keg. They both gave me little grins, to which I rolled my eyes. "Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori... Ori."

He did the entire thing quickly, without pointing at them, and spinning a number of times. "Okay... You're going to have to do that a lot slower and a bunch more times," I said dumbly.

"Get to know them. Go," Gandalf said, ushering me off.

Stumbling away from him, I turned back for a moment. "Crazy old man..." I grumbled.

As I walked off, trying to find something somewhat useful to do, I noticed the rest of the dwarves had gotten no calmer since first arriving. Bilbo was wrestling a bowl of tomatoes away from one of the other dwarves. I couldn't tell which one it was. There were to many with too complicated of names. Bifur, as I had learned his name was, the dwarf with the axe in his head, approached Gandalf from behind me. He was speaking in Khuzdul yet again and motioning around wildly.

"Yes, you're quite right, Bifur. We appear to be one dwarf short," Gandalf said, turning back.

"He is late, is all. He traveled North to a meeting of our kin. He will come," Dwalin said, leaning up against the side of the door frame.

"Mr. Gandalf?" Dori asked, reappearing.

"Hmm?"

"A little glass of red wine, as requested. It's, eh, got a fruity bouquet."

"Ah, cheers."

Out of the corner of my eye I watched as Gandalf drank the tiny cup of wine that Dori had offered him. It was enough to make me giggle. He probably shouldn't have told the dwarf in a hobbit-hole that he wanted a small glass of wine. Gandalf managed to drain the cup within a second. Once it was done, Gandalf raised the cup and then looked sadly at it. It very clearly told me that he wanted a little more. Not that I blamed him. I would have, too.

"Mm," Gandalf muttered.

As everyone started moving towards the table that had been set up in the dining room, I was pulled in with Fili and Kili. I laughed and stumbled in behind them, interested to see the dwarves in their natural habitat. I was having a good time looking around the table as they all chatted, shouting and laughing at each other loudly, all the while trying to figure out who was who, who would like me, and who would be the hardest to try and get on my good side. It would be tough to get them all on my side.

My gaze slowly turned around the table. For whatever reason, my gaze first fell on Bifur. Maybe it was because, for whatever reason, he was the one who scared me the most. Between his bushy black hair and long and scraggly salt and pepper beard, I was already terrified of him. Plus there was the simple fact that I couldn't understand what he was saying. I knew that he was going to be a tough one to win over when I couldn't even communicate with him.

Next to Bifur was Dori. He had seemed nice enough to me so far. Not that we had really said much to each other. We had just spoken long enough for him to hand me a mug of tea. But just that one interaction was enough to tell me that he would likely be nice enough. He was the only older dwarf that had offered to do something for me, after all. As he spoke, I realized that he was a little stern. But I had a feeling that he would be nice enough.

On his other side was Bombur. Now I genuinely liked Bombur. Not that I knew him very well. The two of us had only exchanged two or three comments and I wasn't sure that he had even looked at me when we did. He did seem to like me after I had mentioned to him that I liked his beard. At least, he seemed to like me well enough. Bombur was friendly to everyone here, anyways. The good thing was that I could use some cooking tips. Maybe I could take those back with me to the real world.

Right next to him was a dwarf named Gloin. My gaze fell over him quickly. Each time that we met eyes, I would quickly dart them away. He didn't seem to like me very much and we hadn't even spoken yet. His face was terrifying. Everything about him was terrifying. The only good thing was that I knew that his son was Gimli, who had always been one of my favorite characters. But he wasn't that soft yet. I just had no doubt in my mind that he wouldn't like me.

On his other side was one of my favorite characters in the films. I had been slightly excited to meet him before and now I was even happier to get a chance to speak with him. Bofur reminded me very much of a fun, drunk, uncle. And I had two of those, so I knew what they looked like. I adored his hat, accent, and attitude. He was one of the few who would strike up a friendly conversation with me. I had a feeling that the two of us would manage to get along. Maybe he was one of Gandalf's 'easier' dwarves.

Chuckling on his other side was Dwalin. The dwarves kept changing places so it wasn't easy to keep track of them. But Dwalin was easy to find. With his shaved head, tattoos, and furry hair, it was very easy to pick him out. His laughter was deep and rumbling but it was never directed at me. He would give me somewhat of a scary glare each time that we met eyes. I would nervously look away. Dwalin would likely side with Thorin and definitely not like me very much.

Sitting not far from me was one of the dwarves named Nori. I couldn't remember much of him from the films or the novel. His hair and beads were definitely cool and I liked the way that he had done his star-shaped red hair. He was somewhat of a strange character. Despite his relatively small stature, he was eating almost as much as Bombur was, which was definitely saying something. He hadn't spoken to me so I couldn't tell if he would like me or not.

As I recalled from the films and the way that they had all spoken with each other earlier, Ori was the youngest. Which seemed funny, because both Fili and Kili seemed to be younger than him. But they had told me that Ori was just a year younger than Kili. Although I didn't know how old he was. I liked watching Ori sheepishly try and insert himself into the conversations, which worked surprisingly well. Ori spoke to me a number of times throughout the meal. He definitely seemed to like me.

One of the other dwarves that I remembered from the film was Balin. There was also the reason that he was mentioned in The Lord of the Rings. Balin was the quietest of the dwarves, but it was simply because of age. I could tell that he did command a lot of respect when he spoke. He was calm and levelheaded about everything that the dwarves did. I couldn't be sure whether or not he would genuinely like or agree with me, but I doubted that he would be cruel to me.

Oin apparently was a distant cousin of Thorin. He evidently felt a sense of loyalty to his kin, but he also had a substantial sum of money invested in the venture. He seemed nice enough to me each time that I saw him or heard him speak. He was evidently the healer among the company. Most of the things that he did were from his own mind. He was reasonably funny, but that was mostly because he kept getting things wrong from his ear trumpet. Each time he did, it definitely made me laugh.

Then there were the two who had planted me in between themselves. Without argument, since I knew that they would actually speak to me and include me in the conversation. Fili was definitely a charmer. He reminded me of the type of guy that I normally would have gone after. I really did like him. It seemed like we were going to become good friends in only a short period of time, since we were already happily chatting like we had known each other forever. Our connection would pose a problem eventually.

Even worse was the dwarf sitting on my left side. I already liked Kili a lot. We hadn't even known each other that long. It had only been a few hours. If even that much. We had just had one shooting lesson. My little crush on him was going to pose another big problem. Especially since he was destined to die and fall in love with someone else in just over a year. But what if I could manage to change that? As for him, he was just being flirtatious. It was his personality. I just had to remember that.

The only genuinely good thing about all of this was that I was going to have Bilbo and Gandalf with me. They were two people in the company who I knew would like me and I didn't have to worry about them dying for another long while. Bilbo would be perfectly safe, even though he would have a few near-misses. As for Gandalf, he was a little batty and would only be around for about half of the time. He might end up driving me even more insane.

The table briefly quieted and I glanced up. "Miss Ambrose. Might I inquire just a bit about you?" Balin asked.

That was enough to quiet the rest of the chatter. "Certainly," I said. "And -"

"Just Leah," Fili and Kili chirped together.

Everyone laughed as I rolled my eyes at the two dwarves. "They're right, as annoying as they are," I said.

"You'll have to get used to them, lassie," Dwalin said.

Everyone at the table laughed as I smiled. Maybe there was a chance that Dwalin could like me. "Trust me, they don't faze me," I said.

The dwarves all laughing again and I smiled. Maybe there was a chance that I could get them all to like me. I would have to get them to like and trust me if I wanted this to work. Fili and Kili were giving me horrified looks. Obviously fake. I rolled my eyes as the two of them started to toss bread rolls at me. I giggled softly at more food was thrown around, going right back into another food fight. It took a while for everyone to calm down before we were able to speak freely again.

"What would you like to know, Balin?" I asked.

"That accent is unlike any that I've ever heard before. Where is it from?" Balin asked.

"Rohan," I said as convincingly as I could.

"You're from Rohan?" Ori asked.

"Yes. But I've traveled a fair bit. I suppose that I might have picked up some other accents along the way," I said, knowing that I was getting into dangerous territory.

"I've never heard that accent before," Dwalin said.

Time to backpedal. "Mixes of a few different ones," I shrugged.

Gandalf spotted my sudden distress, as well as I was trying to hide it. "Miss Ambrose has been a traveler since she was young. She spent a good amount of time in different cities and villages. It's a muddle of them," Gandalf explained.

"Where in Rohan are you from?" Balin asked.

I glanced over to see Gandalf mouthing it to me. "Edoras," I answered, hoping that I was pronouncing it correctly.

"The capital," Balin commented.

"Yes. But like Gandalf said, I've traveled quite a bit," I said vaguely.

"You're not a ranger, are you?" Dori asked.

Now that one I knew. That was what Aragorn was from The Lord of the Rings. I thought so, at least. "No. But it would be quite interesting," I admitted.

"Why are you here? With the company?" Balin asked, motioning around.

"Well... Gandalf?" I asked, pinning it on him.

Because I honestly had no idea why I was supposed to be here. Other than the Valar wanting me to do something, apparently. "She is here because I say that she will be here. Miss Ambrose is remarkably strong of body and mind. She will do this company well in more than one way," Gandalf said.

The way that he spoke left no room for argument, although I knew that we were going to have this argument all over again when Thorin arrived and saw Bilbo and me. Gandalf nodded at the silence before turning back and giving me a small and discreet grin. But there was a lump in my throat that I had to swallow, which was suddenly very hard. Because I was having a hard time not admitting that the only reason that I was there was to ensure that Fili, Kili, and Thorin lived through the Battle of the Five Armies.

"You're not magical, are you?" Balin asked.

"Well my mother probably thinks that I am," I teased. There was no laughter. Everyone just stared at me for a few moments. "Sorry, that was just a joke."

Now there was some scattered laughter. Maybe they would just think that I was strange. "Welcome to the company of Thorin Oakenshield then, lassie!" Bofur yelled excitedly, thumping me on the back.

There were only a few others who were also cheering. "What about your family? Won't they miss you?" Balin asked.

They don't even know that I'm not in their realm right now. "Yes, I expect that they will. But they're used to this. Me being gone for reasonably long periods of time. When I was in... training, I used to leave on extended trips," I said, trying to alter the details of the long trips for competitions and training that I used to take. "They know that I'll be back."

"Do they know about our expedition?" Balin asked cautiously.

"No. They just know that I'll write whenever I get the chance," I said.

"Pardon me, but what race are you from?" Dori asked.

"Brother!" Ori shouted.

Laughing softly, I waved them off. "No, no, it's alright," I said reassuringly.

It was a question that I had been expecting the entire time. "I meant nothing by it. You just aren't very tall. No facial hair and you can't speak Khuzdul, so I would doubt dwarf. Lack of height cuts out elf. But you don't seem quite tall enough to be from the race of man," Dori explained.

"Well, I am. Just lacking height in my family," I said.

"Even we're taller than you," Kili said.

"By barely an inch!" I shouted.

"Still counts," Fili teased.

Rolling my eyes at them, I shoved the two dwarfs away. There was more scattered laughter. "Honestly I was hoping that I would get a little bit taller but it just wasn't in the cards for me," I admitted.

"You'll fit in a little better this way," Kili teased.

He was right about that. I smiled weakly. "What family do you have?" Balin asked.

For whatever reason, thinking about my family was like a punch to the gut. Don't be so dramatic. You'll see them soon. Likely in the hospital with a stomach pump, but still... "My mother and father. And I have my sister. Harley; that's her name. She's sixteen," I explained.

Funny looks were exchanged around the table. "Sixteen?" Fili asked.

"Yes. Why?" I asked curiously.

"That just seems so young," Fili said.

"Well we don't age the way that dwarves do," I reasoned.

"How old are you?" Ori asked.

"Twenty-one," I said sheepishly.

For some reason, telling them that I was turning twenty-two would have made me feel even stupider. I would just have to settle with their reactions. Unfortunately their reactions were exactly what I was expecting. Because there was a loud bought of laughter from around the table that time. I huffed under my breath and dropped a little bit further into my seat, feeling suddenly very awkward. Kili was nice enough to at least lay a hand on my knee, despite the fact that he was laughing, too.

"I'd be willing to bet that I'm at least smarter," I said somewhat irritably.

"We wouldn't doubt that much, lassie," Bofur said, reaching around Fili to give my shoulder a shake.

"What weapons can you handle?" Dwalin asked.

It was only a matter of time before that question was going to come up. "Well I'm not perfect with anything. But I'm alright with throwing knives and I'm starting to learn how to use a bow and arrow. I'm not a half-bad wrestler either," I said.

"Wrestler?" Dwalin questioned.

"Yes. I learned when I was little and just kept doing it," I answered vaguely.

"You're still little, lass," Dori said.

My face started to burn with embarrassment. "How are you with the bow and arrow?" Gloin asked.

"Well -" I started awkwardly.

"She's good," Kili stepped in almost instantly. I turned to him and smiled softly. At least someone was standing up for me. "I saw her practicing with it earlier. She was hitting pretty close to her mark each time. I'll help you work with it. You'll be able to take down a Warg Rider easily in a few weeks."

"Thank you," I whispered gratefully.

There were some strange looks exchanged as Bifur leaned over and whispered something in Khuzdul to Bofur. "He wants to know if you can throw an axe," Bofur said.

Giggling softly, I shook my head. "Oh, no. I'll be staying far away from those. You're safe, I promise," I told Bifur.

He seemed to understand English, he just couldn't speak it. There was another round of laughter and I grinned. Maybe they would all come to like me. "You're really coming along with us, then?" Dori asked.

"I believe so," I said.

"And are you frightened?" Dori asked.

"Are you?" I shot back.

There was even more laughter this time. I smiled brightly. They still seemed so-so, but they seemed to be liking me more and more as time went on. Fili and Kili laid their hands on my backs and patted me gently. The whole thing made me smile. Even though I knew that a number of them didn't really like me, they already felt more like family than all of my friends and even my own family had felt back in my real world. The thought was a little depressing.

"And your appetite?" Bombur asked.

"Can get even worse than a dwarf's. Although I can't cook," I said.

Everyone laughed at the first comment and stared at me blankly at the second. "No?" Bombur asked.

"No. I set a boiling pot of water on fire back home," I said.

There was a brief silence before they all started laughing again. This time it was even louder than before. I blushed softly before giggling as well. "Perhaps we can use you to tend to the fires, then," Gloin said.

"I can do that," I said brightly.

"Lassie, you have to show me that trick sometime," Bofur said.

"Deal," I chirped.

"Did I see a journal with your things earlier?" Ori asked suddenly.

Turning back towards him, I nodded and smiled. That had piqued some interest. "Oh, yes. I was planning on writing letters back home to my sister whenever I got the chance. I miss her when I'm out on my journeys. And it's just to let her know that I'm still doing okay," I said.

In reality it was in case this was real and to help me keep my sanity. "That's good of you," Oin said.

"I would want her to do the same. Are you a writer, Ori?" I asked.

"He certainly is. The official scribe of the company," Nori put in.

Obviously his brother was quite proud of him. "That's impressive," I said sweetly.

Ori blushed softly. "Thank you. I draw, too," Ori said.

"You'll have to promise to show me one of your drawings one day," I said.

"Of course," Ori said.

There was even more laughter as Ori blushed deeply. There must not have been very many female dwarves. Was it Gimli who had said that the women looked just like the men? The thought made me shudder. With the somewhat awkward introductions out of the way, the chatter level at the table rose again. I smiled as I watched them communicate with each other. As time ticked on, I had a brief conversation with everyone at the table, although Bofur had to translate for me with Bifur.

None of the conversations had been painfully awkward, but some of them had been a little easier than others. It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that no one would be outright rude with me. They would all treat me nicely enough. But it became painfully obvious that not all of the dwarves really liked me. In fact, it seemed that most of them didn't. At least, not with the knowledge that I would be coming with them. But it did seem that Bilbo, Bifur, Bombur, Bofur, and Ori liked me.

As the chatter continued and I had some more fun with everyone else at the table, I started spotting those people whom I knew really didn't like me. Dori, Gloin, Nori, and Oin really didn't seem to like me. Although they had managed to keep all of their nastier comments to themselves. Which I appreciated. I was sure that they had less than nice things to really say about me. They could keep it to themselves. I also got the feeling that Balin and Dwalin were mixed when it came to their feelings for me.

It was definitely obvious that I was getting along with Fili and Kili the best. Everyone at the table must have noticed that already. It was likely because they were just like me. Young - for their own race - rebellious, and definitely jokers. That was exactly the way that I was. I genuinely liked the two of them a lot, which was still making everything that much harder. And it still really didn't help that I just liked looking at Kili, as he was irritatingly cute and charming.

Throughout the meal I attempted to make a few jokes with the rest of the dwarves to try and integrate myself. Some of them went over reasonably well while others didn't seem to quite hit their mark. Obviously they didn't understand them all. I could tell that all of the dwarves thought that I was different than them. Which was totally true. The main problem was that I wasn't just different because I was a human, which seemed to be an area of contention with some of the company members.

Unfortunately the longer that we were at the table, the more that I realized that there was already a problem forming. Far more than just having to keep three company members alive who were destined to die at the hands of vicious Orcs. It was that I feared that Balin might have well been aware that I was lying about who I was. He seemed the most suspicious. But I trusted Gandalf to help me keep my secret just that. Thorin would be the real problem to hide it from.

"I don't think that your friends like me very much," I whispered to Fili and Kili.

"Of course they do!" Fili cheered.

"Come on, then. Join in on the fun!" Kili added.

"Throwing food at each other?" I asked.

"Problem?" Kili asked.

"Lighten up!" Fili cheered.

"No problem," I said sweetly.

If they wanted to mess with me, I could mess with them right back. So I reared back and threw two piles of mashed carrots onto Fili and Kili. They hadn't been expecting it. They were likely expecting that I was going to throw a roll of bread or something like that at them. Not a handful of bright orange, lightly mashed, carrots. The entire table fell silent for a moment as the carrots started to smear down their faces and drip onto the clothing and wooden table.

For a fearful moment I wondered if maybe I had went too far. Maybe they were expecting me to be a normal girl and sit back and act disgusted as they all acted like the rowdy boys that they were. But then the entire table erupted into a roaring bought of laughter and I smiled. There were a number of the dwarves that cheered and patted me on the legs and shoulders. Maybe there was a chance that we could really like each other in time. Maybe they could really come to trust me.

Out of the corner of my eyes I noticed that Gandalf was grinning at me. He was sitting in the corner of the table, closest to the hallway that would bring him out to the bedrooms. I rolled my eyes at him. I knew what his look was for. He was silently telling me that he was right the entire time. The dwarves might be able to like me in time. I was forced to spend the next few minutes trying to shove Fili and Kili away from me. They were trying to smash one of the lightly boiled potatoes in my face for retaliation.

As I glanced around, I realized that Bilbo wasn't sitting with us. He was standing in the back of the dining room. I watched out of the corner of my eyes as he backed into the hallway. Suddenly I felt a little guilty again. I should have been trying to help, not joining the dwarves in their disastrous dinner. But even I had to admit that I was enjoying the grand feast with all his food. They were quite rude and messy about eating, though. Kili tapped me on the shoulder and I backed off.

"Can I have some of that?" Kili asked Nori from around me.

"Sorry," I muttered, leaning out of the way.

"Bombur, catch!" Bofur shouted.

The dwarves quieted down long enough to watch as Bofur reared back and threw something that looked like an egg at his brother. Despite the fact that I had seen it in the movie, I was still surprised to see Bombur effortlessly catch the food in his mouth. It was one of the most impressive things that I had ever seen. Everyone started cheering as I leaned back and clapped, laughing. As they began throwing food around, Bilbo walked away in disgust. As I looked back, I saw him sadly staring at his emptied pantry.

"Are you all going to get him more food?" I asked Kili.

"We'll clean up before we leave." I rolled my eyes at him. "You're very protective of him," Kili commented.

My head quickly turned towards him. The two of us stared at each other for a moment before I shook my head. "It's a little silly. He's over twice as old as I am and here I am protecting him. I guess it is a height thing. He seems so small and frail," I explained.

"Now what if I said that about you?" Kili asked.

"I'd shoot you," I said seriously.

He was barely an inch taller than me. Although I kind of liked it. Being a fighter in the MMA, I was used to shorter guys. Most of them were. "Not going to tolerate anyone here protecting you?" Kili asked teasingly.

"Not going to be a damsel in distress," I said determinedly.

"We'll see with those lousy bow skills," Kili teased.

"I thought that you said that I was pretty good with it!" I barked.

"Not compared to me," Kili said haughtily.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment before I started laughing. Of course! He was a professional archer. I had only been doing it for a day. I shoved him off to the side. He laughed as he straightened back up and threw an arm over my shoulder. The two of us were laughing as I was hit in the side by one of the hyperactive dwarves. His hit shoved me straight into Kili, who caught me before I could go flying off of the bench. His hands were on my arms as I blushed softly.

My mind was arguing with itself desperately. Some part of me wanted him to let me go so that I could go sprinting off. I wanted to be far away from him right now. But another part, a much more powerful part, wanted him to give into that stupid, cheesy, movie-moment. But, as always happens in movies, the two of us started laughing awkwardly at each other. I gently disentangled myself from Kili's arms and brushed my hair back off of my forehead.

It was a good thing that I had come to my senses. I didn't want to have to deal with fourteen months of this. Having an irritating little crush on Kili. I would get over it... Yes... That would work. I was very grateful when another distraction came from... well, whatever was about to happen between us. With a dead man. Fili was now walking on top of the table, knocking food to the side, carrying several cups of ale and sending food spraying up in all directions.

"Who wants an ale? There you go," Fili said.

"Hand it over!" I shouted.

"Absolutely, my fair maiden," Fili said, ducking down and handing me a tankard.

"Shut up," I barked.

"Let him have another drink! Here you go," Dwalin was saying.

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw the next little disaster that was about to take place in poor Bilbo's dining room. Dwalin was now pouring his ale into Oin's hearing trumpet. I started giggling, hiding my reaction behind Kili's shoulder. As Oin spluttered in anger, everyone else laughed. Oin put his hearing trumpet to his mouth and blew the ale out of it, making it squeal. I gasped as the ale shot onto me. Kili was laughing loudly at my misfortune, slapping the table with his hand. I threw a roll at him for it.

Then one of the dwarves suddenly yelled, "On the count of three!"

Instantly the dwarves pounded their tankards together. Then someone counted, "One... Two!"

"Keep up," Kili said, leaning into my ear.

What was about to happen? That was when I remembered. The only time that they had been reasonably quiet in the film. All the dwarves went quiet and began drinking their ale together. For a moment I couldn't drink. I was trying to stifle my laughter. They were incredibly messy, as ale fell all over their faces and ran down their beards. When they finished drinking, they began burping; Ori ended up letting out the biggest burp of all, which earned the loudest laugh. Bilbo looked away in disgust.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Kili had managed to drain his entire tankard. But he had done it somewhat gracefully. He had barely spilled any. Even I had managed to drink about half of my ale, which was stupid, considering that I was either in a drug or alcohol-induced haze from my wild night out. I started laughing as I let out a burp myself. The table quieted for a moment before the men started laughing loudly. I rolled my eyes at them playfully. I could have done an even better one with soda.

"And how was that?" I asked the brothers.

"It's a good start," Fili said.

"I'm not sure that I want to be at your level," I said, remembering his disgusting burp.

"You couldn't get there anyways," Kili teased.

"Is that a challenge?" I asked.

"Are you going to take it if it is?" Kili asked.

"I... think I might," I said slowly.

The three of us smiled at each other as I started laughing again. I had always been a giggly person, but I felt it even more right now than ever before. For a moment I felt like I might have actually belonged with the company. And it was because of far more than just downing a tankard of ale quickly. These dwarves, despite the fact that I barely knew them, felt like they could become family. A real one, which was what I had always wanted. A family without the blood ties. One that you ask for and aren't given.

As the night wore on, I found myself laughing hysterically and helping in making a disaster of Bilbo's home. Which was not nice of me. I did feel a little bad about everything that we were doing, but I was having such a good time. I knew that I was flirting with Kili throughout the night and I hoped that no one else recognized it. But I was sure that some of them - particularly the older ones - did. Unless I was crazy, he was flirting back with me. But it was just for the one night. Nothing serious could come from this...

When the meal finally finished, after what felt like hours and maybe even days, the dwarves started to leave the table. I knew what was about to come. It had always been my favorite part of the movie and book. They were now all walking about the home, not quite cleaning up but not making a worse mess. I noticed that everyone had calmed down a bit with some food in their stomachs. Maybe it was like a food coma. As I walked out into the hallway, I saw Bilbo grab a doily back from Nori.

"Excuse me, that is a doily, not a dishcloth!" Bilbo snapped.

"But it's full of holes!" Bofur pointed out.

"It's supposed to look like that, it's crochet," Bilbo explained irritably.

"Oh, and a wonderful game it is too, if you got the balls for it," Bofur said.

The dwarves started to laugh again as Bilbo stuffed the doily into a box. "Be bother and confusticate these dwarves!" Bilbo shouted to himself.

I walked up to his side and laid a hand on his shoulder. Bilbo jumped and whirled around to look at me. "I'm so sorry about them. And I joined in... I can't believe that I did that and left you here to clean up and worry over everything," I said guiltily.

Bilbo placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "It's alright, Leah. They're very clearly taken with you," Bilbo said.

"I don't think most of them like me," I said.

"The three younger ones do," Bilbo said.

Shrugging my shoulders, I leaned up against the wooden door frame. "A fault on their part, I suppose," I muttered.

"Well I like you, too," Bilbo said brightly.

Smiling at him, I gave Bilbo a small hug. "Thank you, Bilbo. I like you, too," I said honestly.

Gandalf strode out of the pantry to walk over to us. "My dear Bilbo, what on earth is the matter?" he asked.

Bilbo started following Gandalf back through the house and I went with them. "What's the matter? I'm surrounded by dwarves. What are they doing here?" Bilbo asked Gandalf.

"Maybe you should just tell him now," I advised.

"Oh, they're quite a merry gathering, once you get used to them," Gandalf said.

Bilbo was giving me a look from my previous statement. He knew that I knew what we were going here but I wasn't saying anything. Not until I got the go-ahead from Gandalf. I just barely ducked out of the way as Bofur reached out for something past me. I turned back to see what was happening behind me. It seemed that Nori had a chain of sausages over his shoulder, and Bofur wanted them. He grabbed on and I watched as they started playing tug of war with the sausages.

"I don't want to get used to them," Bilbo growled, pulling Gandalf with him. "The state of my kitchen! There's mud trod into the carpet, they've pillaged the pantry. I'm not even going to tell you what they've done in the bathroom; they've all but destroyed the plumbing. I don't understand what they're doing in my house!"

We walked back out into the main hallway and I watched as Bilbo placed his hands on his hips, trying to calm himself down. "Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt, but what should I do with my plate?" Ori asked Bilbo politely.

"Oh," I started, stepping in, "I'll -"

But, as expected, Fili cut me off. "Here you go, Ori, give it to me," Fili said.

Fili took the plate from Ori and threw it back to Kili, who threw it behind his back to Bifur, who was standing at the sink in the kitchen. Bifur caught it behind his back, without even looking at it. Very impressive. Kili, Fili, and other dwarves began throwing the plates, bowls, and utensils to each other, eventually throwing them to the sink to be washed. Not a single one missed their mark. As dishware flew through the air, Gandalf ducked to avoid getting hit. I stepped back out of throwing range.

"Oh!" Gandalf laughed.

"Excuse me, that's my mother's West Farthing crockery, it's over a hundred years old!" Bilbo shouted.

The dwarves were still throwing the dishes back and forth. I knew that this was where Bilbo would really start losing it. At least everything was about to slow down once Thorin arrived. I watched as Kili caught a bowl on his foot and kicked it back up to catch it. Fili was bouncing a bowl on his elbows back and forth. It was so much more impressive seeing it in real life than on the screen. The dwarves at the table then began rhythmically drumming on the table with their utensils and fists.

"And can - can you not do that? You'll blunt them!" Bilbo stuttered.

"Oh, Bilbo... You have no idea what you've just done," I muttered, knowing what was coming now.

"What?" Bilbo asked.

"Ooh, d'you hear that, lads? He says we'll blunt the knives," Bofur said.

There was a teasing note to his voice. Kili began singing and the other dwarves soon joined him, as they continued throwing the dishware. It didn't take them long to start throwing the piles onto Ori. Dwalin was batting away the plates with his forehead. Nori was playing the little tune on his pipe. Bilbo was watching in horror as the plates continued to fly every which way. I gasped slightly as Kili almost skewered Bifur in the back of the head, who just managed to catch the fork.

Already having an axe buried in the front of his head, I doubted that Bifur would have liked having a fork in the back. Kili - obviously having heard my gasp - turned back to me with an overly-confident wink. I rolled my eyes and continued to watch the dwarves with an amused smile. Bombur was eating the remains of the food on the plates as Balin carelessly flicked them back with his own plate. Gandalf was watching with a smile as he puffed on his pipe. Bifur was now piping as the dwarves danced on the table.

"Blunt the knives, bend the forks  
Smash the bottles and burn the corks  
Chip the glasses and crack the plates  
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!

Cut the cloth and tread on the fat  
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat  
Pour the milk on the pantry floor  
Splash the wine on every door

Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl  
Pound them up with a thumping pole  
When you've finished, if any are whole  
Send them down the hall to roll...

That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!"

The song was finally over but the dwarves were still laughing and playing their own melodies. I stepped off to the side to watch Bilbo push his way past the dwarves. He shoved past Fili and Ori, both of whom were laughing at him. I smiled guiltily as Bilbo huffed up in anger, only to find that all of the dishes stacked neatly and cleanly. At least they weren't broken. But I didn't say that, knowing that Bilbo wouldn't appreciate it. The dwarves, Gandalf, and I all laughed at his reaction.

As Kili came to join me where I was standing with Fili, I looked between the brothers. "That's quite impressive for something right on the spot," I said.

"Thank you," Kili said.

"We can make up one for you, too, if you'd like?" Fili offered.

"Absolutely not," I said quickly.

"Don't trust us?" Kili asked playfully.

"Come now, Leah," Fili added.

"I think I can trust you two to -"

My words were cut off the moment that there were three loud knocks on the door. It wasn't just me who stopped speaking. All of the dwarves ceased their laughter and mockery. As Gandalf seated himself, all of the dwarves looked back at the door. My heart skipped a beat. Time to meet the final person who will likely hate me and I will have to save anyways. The jovial mood quickly died, now that everyone knew that it was time to get down to business. Gandalf shot me a knowing look and I nodded.

"He is here."


	4. Chapter Four

Every single person sitting at the table glanced up. To my surprise, everyone, including Gandalf, looked nervous. My nerves were suddenly standing on end. I had almost forgotten that there was still one more dwarf coming to visit. The worst one of all. Thorin Oakenshield, who would definitely make me nervous. At least Richard Armitage has a lovely voice to listen to. Although Thorin would likely hate me. Not that I would be that surprised. He hated Bilbo, who at least had a nicer attitude than I did.

It didn't take long for everyone to start slowly rising from the table. It surprised me slightly. I assumed that they didn't want to leave him waiting. I didn't either, but I couldn't bring myself to get up from the table. I was nervous to have to meet Thorin. I knew that he was going to be the biggest problem throughout the journey. He wasn't going to like me at all, much like most of the rest of the dwarves. But that wasn't going to stop me from trying - and hopefully succeeding - in saving his life.

"Come on," Kili said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Oh. Right," I muttered.

With all of my thoughts being jumbled together, I had almost forgotten to get to my feet. So I nodded, taking Kili's hand, and walking over with the rest of them to the front door. Most of the dwarves were standing near the kitchen but the rest were out in the hallway. I was standing in between Fili and Kili. My heart was beating quickly as the two brothers gave me reassuring smiles. It almost made me smile. They must have been excited to see their uncle. They had no idea that he was going to hate me.

In the back of my mind I realized that it would probably be an area of contention. Thorin wasn't going to like that Fili and Kili were friendly with me. Gandalf slowly placed a hand on the door and pulled it open. Thorin was standing right outside. He was looking off to the right and slowly looked over at Gandalf. He was just about as majestic as I thought that he would be. There was some regalia on him. To my surprise, he was probably two inches or so taller than me. His hair was nicer than mine... That's upsetting.

"Gandalf. I thought you said this place would be easy to find." Thorin walked in without an invitation. "I lost my way, twice. Wouldn't have found it at all had it not been for that mark on the door," Thorin said slowly as he unbuttoned his cloak.

The dwarves all gave him respectful bows. "Mark?" Bilbo questioned, pushing his way past the dwarves to the door as Gandalf closed it. "There's no mark on that door. It was painted a week ago!"

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed Thorin shoot Fili and Kili a smile. "Probably not the issue that you should be having right now," I whispered to Bilbo.

To my surprise - and definitely my horror - I noticed Thorin's gaze immediately turn to me. He didn't seem to like the fact that I had his nephews positioned somewhat defensively at my sides. Not against him, just in general. I blushed madly as the two of us stared at each other. Thorin was very nice-looking but it was that piercing gaze that made me nervous. That look that made me feel like I was so little. He seemed so powerful and that thought alone made me feel incredibly weak.

How was I supposed to save a man as strong as him? "There is a mark; I put it there myself. Bilbo Baggins, Leah Ambrose, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield," Gandalf said.

Kili pulled me forward towards Thorin, who, for the moment, was ignoring me. Without looking away from Bilbo, Thorin handed off his cloak, to Kili who was grinning at his uncle. "So, this is the Hobbit," Thorin said.

He knotted his hands in front of him as I scowled. "He refers to him as 'the hobbit?'" I asked Gandalf.

"Quiet," Gandalf chided.

Thorin started to walk around Bilbo. "Tell me, Mr. Baggins, have you done much fighting?" Thorin asked.

"Pardon me?" Bilbo asked, looking shocked.

"Axe or sword? What's your weapon of choice?" Thorin asked, coming to stand back in front of the hobbit.

"Well, I have some skill at Conkers, if you must know," Bilbo said, looking confident, "but I fail to see why that's relevant."

His confidence was gone just as soon as it was there. I noticed that little snickers were being exchanged. "Thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar," Thorin told the others.

That time there was much louder laughter. My jaws set as they all moved to turn away, Bilbo with a saddened look. "Just because you're not a master with a weapon doesn't mean that you're weak," I said.

My voice was just loud enough to cut over the laughter and echo through the home. Their little party silenced themselves as I stiffened slightly. Everyone stopped what they were doing and whipped back around to face me. My stomach was churning in nervous knots now. I blushed again, feeling suddenly a little stupid for having dared to say something like that to challenge Thorin. I was supposed to get him to like me, not set a record for making someone hate me so quickly. Thorin slowly strode up to me.

"And you are?" Thorin asked lowly.

There was something of a challenge in his voice. "As Gandalf said," I started, unable to keep the irritation out of my voice, "I'm Leah. Leah Ambrose."

"Tell me, Miss Ambrose. What are you here for?" Thorin asked, standing tall over me.

I turned back and called out awkwardly, "Gandalf?"

Gandalf stepped forwards and motioned in between Thorin and myself. "Miss Ambrose is quite talented in her own rights. She will be the fifteenth member of this company," Gandalf said.

"I wasn't aware that I asked for a fifteenth member," Thorin said irritably.

"Seems that you've gotten one anyways," I said dumbly.

Thorin shot me a little glare before turning back to Gandalf. "This is the woman you spoke of, Gandalf?" he asked.

Any concern that I had had about my words before went straight out of the window. Suddenly I realized something far more unnerving. My heart skipped a beat, which it seemed that I was going to have to get used to happening. Thorin's words kept echoing in my head. This is the woman you spoke of... The woman he spoke of? Had Gandalf known that I was going to somehow get transported to Middle Earth? How the hell could he even have known that I would be here? I set an irritable glare on Gandalf.

But just a moment later, I realized that Gandalf was not the issue right now. We could talk later. Maybe even at Rivendell. The one thing that I was not going to let happen was have Thorin speaking down to me like I was a child. He might have been far older than me - as I did recall the dwarves lived longer than humans - but I was not going to allow that to happen. I had had enough of being treated like a child, despite the fact that I was an adult. They always treated me like a child, in this life and my real one.

"Yes," Gandalf said, bringing me back to the conversation at hand.

"Pardon me for asking," Balin started, "Miss Ambrose -"

"Leah, please," I interrupted as politely as I possibly could. "Honestly. Miss Ambrose makes me feel like I'm my grandmother."

A few of the dwarves smiled at that. "That may take some time to get used to. For all of us. But, Leah, what are you doing here with the company?" Balin asked.

Unfortunately that time I knew that the answer was on me. "Um... Gandalf seemed to think that I would be useful," I said awkwardly.

"Don't take offense, Leah, but the wilderness is no place for a woman," Balin said gently.

"Perhaps not for most women. But I am not most women," I said, trying to stand as tall as I could, which put me over everyone but Gandalf, Kili, Fili, Thorin, and Dwalin. "I'm not a barmaid. I don't plan on washing your clothes or cooking your food. I might not be physically intimidating, but I do know how to handle myself."

"The woods are a dangerous place, for anyone," Balin said.

Apparently my words did absolutely nothing. "So? The entire world is a dangerous place. There's no point in fearing it," I said, getting angrier by the moment.

"We don't need someone else to protect," Dwalin said fiercely.

"You won't need to protect me," I snapped, whipping around, the tips of my blonde hair flicking Fili in the face.

"We can't just bring along dead weight," Thorin said.

How dare they think that I was just some weak and useless woman? "I am not dead weight. Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean that I need men to protect me. I'm stronger than you might think that I am. I'm not useless," I said.

Throughout my speech, I had gotten closer and closer to Thorin. He was just a few inches taller than me, but he was far more intimidating. There was a long silence that stretched between us where Thorin merely gave me a scrutinizing stare, looking down at me. I was a little irritable that Gandalf wasn't stepping in to help me. But in the back of my mind I knew that it was for my own benefit. I was going to have to get used to dealing with them in general and when Gandalf wasn't around.

"I can help defeat a dragon," I said suddenly.

That was when everything dawned on me. I knew exactly what was happening in each part of the story. I knew what was going to happen the moment that we set foot in Erebor. I knew that speaking to Smaug would keep him calm while Bilbo searched for the Arkenstone. He could use the One Ring that he would find in Goblin Town. The one that he would steal from Gollum. We could go in there together and figure it out. All I had to do was keep Smaug talking.

We could figure out how to make everything else work without hurting anyone. Maybe we would even be able to stop Smaug from attacking Laketown. If I could do all of that, there was a chance that I could change even more things. Maybe there was a chance that I could save the three of them. I just had to start changing the little things that happened. I noticed that my comment caught the attention of everyone in the room. Even Thorin looked a little bit surprised.

"Come again?" Thorin asked.

Try and sound like you have the slightest idea what you're talking about. "Defeating a dragon. I can do it," I lied through my teeth. "The trick of defeating a dragon isn't just killing it. The whole point of a dragon is to outsmart it. Not an easy task, mind you. But with time, I can figure out what to say. Like me or not, Thorin Oakenshield, I'm probably the smartest person in the room, save Gandalf."

The last part might have been true. Thorin scoffed at my comments. I wasn't sure which one. "You think that the dragon will simply speak with you?" Thorin asked.

Probably not. "I think that I have a plan," I said, not even having the beginnings of a plan.

"Would you care to let the rest of us in on it?" Thorin asked.

Sure. The second that I figure it out myself. "Dragons do not explicitly attack. They have a tendency to want to learn. To be knowledgeable. That's one of their defining traits," I explained.

Thorin's gaze narrowed. "The dragon is dead," he said.

Oh, trust me, it's not. "Do you honestly believe that?" I asked.

"It has not been seen for sixty years," Balin stepped in.

"Just because you can't see something doesn't mean that it isn't there. Are you honestly willing to make what might be a fatal mistake?" I asked carefully.

More looks were exchanged. Thorin finally nodded and looked back at me. "Why would you be willing to risk your life for this quest?" Thorin asked.

"Because..." I trailed off.

That was a damned good question. Why was I willing to risk my life for this quest? The answer: I wasn't. I wasn't at all willing to risk my life for something that had only happened in a book and movie. But right now it seemed that playing along was the only way that I was getting out of this dream. And, to by honest, I really didn't want to be alone until I woke up. So what answer could I give them that wasn't complete bullshit? Come on, Leah, think!

"You are clearly not a dwarf," Thorin reasoned.

"No. I'm not. But - But I do know what it's like to not feel that you belong. To feel that there's somewhere else that you belong," I said honestly, surprising me slightly. "For you, that's Erebor. These twelve dwarves are willing to stand here and put their lives on the line for this quest. Why not me?"

For a long time, the dwarves looked back and forth between each other as I stood awkwardly in the center of the hallway. It was the first time that I had realized that I was standing in the middle of the dwarves, with only Thorin as company. Maybe I shouldn't have said what I had just said. It was a tiny bit on the rude side, which really didn't help. I was supposed to be nice to them. I was supposed to be trying to get on their good side. The way to do that was not to be snotty.

"It is not your place," Thorin said.

"You know what you're walking into. Wouldn't having another two hands help?" I offered.

Thorin nodded and started walking circles around me, making me even more nervous. "It will be some time before we arrive at the Lonely Mountain," Thorin finally said.

"So I've heard," I commented.

"How will you be able to help us in the meantime?" Thorin asked.

How could I help them? That was actually a very good question. And I kept trying to figure out exactly how I could help them. I couldn't swing a sword around. I was used to using the throwing knives back home, not the ones here. I wasn't a master with that bow and arrow yet. I had no idea how to cook or make a fire. My hunting skills were very minimal. I barely knew how to ride a horse and I had never ridden one without a saddle. Maybe I could try and take the night shifts for watch.

So what kind of services could I offer, other than telling them that I was here to save their lives? Use big words, Leah. Confuse them to get them to stop asking questions. "I'm well versed in Middle Earth theology," I said stupidly.

Not quite what I was going for, but it would work. "Pardon?" Thorin asked.

Great... Now what the hell am I supposed to say? "I'm good with directions. I know about what creatures and obstacles we may encounter along the way," I said. Meaning that I literally knew everything that was going to happen at every moment. "It's not just going to be a long hike to Erebor, like you said."

"There will be times when we must fight," Thorin pointed out.

"I'm aware," I said.

"What weapons can you handle?" Thorin asked hesitantly.

"Thank you for not adding, if any," I said jokingly, before realizing that the joke wouldn't make sense to them. Just as expected, Thorin gave me a strange look. So I cleared my throat and went on. "I'm not bad with knives. I'm in the process of learning how to better handle a bow. And I'm a good wrestler."

Thorin's bushy eyebrow rose. "Wrestler?" Thorin asked.

"Yes. Don't believe me, you're welcome to test it for yourself," I offered.

He was very burly. It might be an issue, but I had a feeling that I would manage to beat him in skill. Thorin ignored my offer, though. "How are you with the bow?" he asked.

My stomach gave a little flutter. "I'm... okay," I muttered.

Thorin and most of the rest of the dwarves laughed. "Okay?" Thorin repeated.

"She's not bad, Uncle. I saw her practicing earlier," Kili stepped in.

My cheeks were burning right up until he had said that. Mostly out of embarrassment. My cheeks were still burning, but now it was because someone here had actually stuck up for me. I turned back to Kili to give him a grateful smile, but he wasn't looking at me. Instead, he was looking at Thorin. The two of them were exchanging a long stare with each other. While Kili seemed unfazed, there was something in Thorin's gaze that set my teeth on edge. It was a long time before Thorin looked back at me.

"Can you hit your target?" Thorin asked.

"Yes," I said hesitantly.

"Show me," Thorin ordered.

Show him? "E - Excuse me?" I stuttered.

"Come," Thorin said.

My brain was working fast enough to tell me what was going to happen. Thorin wanted me to show him exactly what I could do with a bow and arrow. And it wasn't much. I blushed softly and nodded, unwilling to let Thorin make me look stupid or like a fool. Thorin motioned for me to follow and I did, walking out into the front yard of Bilbo's home. The rest of the dwarves followed, despite not being told to. In front of me, I could hear Gandalf berating Thorin for not just allowing me to accompany them.

As I slowly strode off towards the front yard, everyone fell into line with me. Fili and Kili walked over to come and stand at my sides, which I was very grateful for. I didn't want to be alone right now. Not seeing as how terrified Thorin made me. Bilbo was just in front of me and I noticed that he was giving me a slightly concerned look. I felt extremely awkward, knowing that everyone was watching me. As we walked out towards the trees, Kili handed me my bow and sheath of arrows. I took them silently.

"You truly wish to accompany us?" Thorin asked.

"Yes. I don't need any of the treasure. Nothing. I just want to go," I said honestly.

My parents had enough money. Money had never been my concern. "Why?" Thorin asked curiously, obviously not believing me.

"Isn't it obvious?" I asked. The others merely stared at me. "I want an adventure."

For a moment, no one said anything. Actually, even after a long while, no one said anything. At least, not through words. Now there was some scattered laughter. I could have sworn for a moment that even the corner of Thorin's lips tilted upwards. Not that he was ever going to say anything to me. He would never admit that he was okay with me. I knew that he had been expecting me to say that it was from some noble cause, which was exactly why I didn't say it. And I was serious. I didn't want any treasure.

"The apple," Thorin said, pointing up onto the branch of one of the far-off trees. I nodded at him. "Sever it with an arrow and I'll allow you to join us."

My jaw almost dropped. He wanted me to sever one of the tinniest branches of the tree that was further away from any shot that I had made before? The little branch that was holding onto the apple was barely there. It was tiny. If my vision was just a tiny bit worse, I wouldn't have even been able to see the branch. It didn't help that it was nighttime and there were fourteen people watching me, most of whom wanted me to miss the shot.

"The one almost thirty feet away?" I asked, realizing that it was the furthest shot that I would have ever made.

"Is it a problem?" Thorin asked knowingly.

I knew that it was a challenge. Which was exactly why I harshly said, "No."

"Three chances," Thorin said, pulling three arrows out of the sheath and handing them to me.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

Everyone was watching me closely. My heart was hammering in my chest. I was sure that I had never been so nervous before. Not even before some of my biggest fights when I was back home. I slowly walked back to where some of the dwarves were clearing some room for me to make my shots. I wished that I could have at least been closer. I realized as I took my spot that I was shaking slightly. What happened if I didn't make the shot? Nothing, you idiot. This is just a dream. Right? It had to be...

"Remember what I taught you?" Kili whispered, coming up to my side.

"Yes," I mumbled.

"You can do it," Kili said reassuringly.

"Take your time," Fili whispered.

"Thank you," I whispered back to them.

They both patted me on the back before taking a step backwards. I found myself even more nervous now that no one was standing near me. I wished that someone would have been at least at my side or directly behind me. But now the two brothers were standing back. I imagined that Thorin wouldn't have wanted them standing that close to me anyways. Gathering the three arrows in my hands, I nocked the first one and let out a deep breath.

Following the same pattern that I had when Gandalf had first gotten me the bow, I took a deep breath and went through the motions that my old trainer had given me. I took a few steps back from the tree, well aware of all of the eyes on me, and well aware that Thorin was hoping for me to fail. I placed the arrow in the notch, pulled back on the string with my back muscles, and anchored the string right next to my mouth. Just as Kili had shown me.

Instead of snapping the string, I very slowly relaxed my fingers. The moment that the string was completely released, I let out a breath. I remembered someone telling me once to not immediately move. Wait until the arrow had found its mark. So I hesitated for a moment before relaxing and placing the bow back against my thigh. The moment that my eyes fell on the arrow's trajectory, I saw that it had just barely scratched a lead a few inches above where the apple was resting.

Breathing deeply, I cringed at the sound of some of the laughter from the dwarves. I should have known that I was going to miss that shot. It didn't stop my cheeks from burning in embarrassment, both from the miss and the laughter. I glanced around and realized that the dwarves were all exchanging knowing nods. They had all been expecting me to miss the shot. Just as I myself had been. Only a few people weren't laughing. Gandalf, Bilbo, Fili, Kili, and Ori.

Was it really so obvious that I wasn't a good shot? Or were women really that bad of warriors here in Middle Earth? I wished that I could have been back in my own realm. I wished that we could have stepped inside the octagon, without any of the weapons or armor or anything of the sorts. I wanted to see them try and beat me in there. Their only advantage would have been their weight. I blushed softly as I reached down for a second arrow.

Almost immediately, wanting to get this over with, I pulled back the string to make the second shot. Just like before, I was now shaking again slightly. I only had two more shots. Unfortunately there was a chance that I was going to miss this one, too. And then there would only be one more to make. I tried to relax as I slowly let up my grip on the string and let the arrow go. When it shot off and I moved the bow down to see the shot, I saw that it nicked the stem that was holding the apple.

Unfortunately that time the apple didn't fall either. At least this time there was no laughter. Strictly because I was so close. Much closer than I had been the first time. Maybe it was a good sign. At least, I was hoping that it was a good sign. Because I couldn't afford to miss this last shot. In fact, I was more desperate to make that last shot than I had thought that I would be. I couldn't understand why. It didn't matter if I couldn't go with them. I would wake up soon enough.

Maybe it was just because I wanted to show Thorin and the other chauvinistic dwarves up. Show them that I could do this. I glanced off and saw that Thorin was scowling at me. He knew just how close I was. As I moved the bow up for my final shot, I looked back. The arrow was still lingering back in the notch. Kili was watching me closely. He was giving me an encouraging nod and I nodded back, remembering his lesson from just a few hours ago.

The first thing that he had told me... I just had to relax. So I closed my eyes for a moment and let out a few deep breaths, briefly lowering the bow. It's not a job. Not like fighting used to be. As I opened my eyes, I aimed again and decided that this time I had to treat it like it was a game. Something to have fun doing. As I slowly let up my grip on the string I eventually managed to release it. On the other side of the string, I watched as the arrow flew off and severed the stem of the apple.

It dropped down and landed with a soft thump on the ground right at Thorin's feet. The dwarves seemed to be having mixed reactions to the fact that I had now guaranteed myself a spot in the Company of Thorin Oakenshield. Fili, Kili, Bofur, Bilbo, Bomber, Ori, and Gandalf were cheering for me. The rest of the dwarves were giving slow nods. If nothing else, I had at least proven myself to not be completely useless. Dwalin and Thorin were nodding slowly. Clearly they didn't want me to make it.

"Anything else?" I asked, grinning, with my bow resting on my hip.

Thorin scowled before stepping forward and nodding at me. "Welcome to the Company of Thorin Oakenshield, Miss Ambrose," he said, almost begrudgingly.

"Thank you," I said.

Despite the fact that I would have corrected anyone else who had called me anything but Leah, I knew that I couldn't. Not when it came to Thorin Oakenshield. I couldn't dare correct him, knowing that the two of us were already on thin ice. That meant that I couldn't say anything like that. Fili and Kili didn't correct him either. Everyone knew that harassing Thorin right now wouldn't have been a bright idea. He would need some time to brood over the fact that he now had to bring me along.

Unfortunately that meant that I was going to have to be careful around him for a little while. But that didn't stop me from giving an excited dance, despite the fact that I would only be in this dream for a while longer. It didn't matter. I was very excited that I had actually managed to make the shot. It was damned far away and a tiny stem. Fili handed back my arrows and I thanked him softly as our large group headed back inside of Bilbo's home. Kili fell into step with me and stayed as I packed away my things up front.

Slowly pushing my things down into the cabinet, Kili came over to help push them down. "Good shot," Kili said.

"I have you to thank. I wouldn't have made any of them without your advice from earlier," I said, straightening up.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. You made that shot all on your own," Kili said.

"Well I still have you to thank." The two of us smiled at each other as I brushed my hair back off of my forehead. "So... Thorin is your uncle?" I asked slowly.

Despite the fact that I already knew the answer, I asked the question anyways. Mostly because I had just remembered that I was not supposed to know who the dwarves were or how they were related. This was supposed to be a sudden thing for me and I was supposed to be meeting them all right now. This was supposed to be our first meeting. I had to get to know them all normally. Through conversation. Not just automatically know why they were and what they were doing here.

"Yes. My mother's brother," Kili admitted.

"Was he around a lot when you were growing up?" I asked curiously.

That much I couldn't remember. I didn't know if it had been in the movies or the novel. "My father died in battle when I was very young. I don't remember much of him. After that, Thorin stepped in to help raise Fili and I to be proper warriors and men," Kili explained.

At least Thorin had been there for them when their father couldn't. "He seems a little... intense," I muttered.

Kili laughed under his breath. "That's one way to put it," he teased.

"I was being nice," I said.

"He'll warm up to you. He just needs time," Kili reasoned.

Shrugging my shoulders, I slowly paced with him back into the living room. "Well I think we have a lot of that," I said.

"Kili," Thorin's voice called.

We both turned back to see that Thorin was standing behind us. "Uncle," Kili greeted.

Thorin motioned in between the two of us. "You'll take Miss Ambrose out and teach her. You'll need to be able to hit moving targets, much farther out than that tree. We'll leave time each night that we stop to rest before twilight for you to practice," Thorin instructed, leaving no room for argument.

Now that was definitely surprising. "Of course," Kili said.

"I'm a fast learner. I promise," I said quickly.

Thorin gave me a once-over. "We shall see," he growled.

A moment later he stalked off back into the dining room. "He definitely doesn't like me," I muttered under my breath.

"He will. In time," Kili said.

"We shall see," I mimicked Thorin's voice.

The two of us laughed softly as we walked back into the dining room. I noticed very awkwardly that everyone was watching us curiously. They seemed very stunned to see that we were laughing. It wasn't that helpful that the rest of them were sitting silently. So the two of us tried to calm down quickly to mime the somber air around the table. I missed goofy air of the massive dinner from before Thorin had come. Now were all sitting quietly, illuminated by soft candlelight.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I watched as Thorin came to sit at the head of the table. Bilbo was preparing him another small dinner at the request of Gandalf. It was hard to gather just a little bit of food, seeing as the dwarves had almost completely decimated everything in the cupboard. I seated myself in between Fili and Kili on the far end of the table, mostly to stay as far away from Thorin as possible. And being between them was quickly becoming a place of comfort.

As Thorin started eating his meal, I awkwardly began to scratch at the only thing that I was able to keep on me from my own world. A small diamond ring that was shaped like an arrowhead. It had been mine for as long as I could remember and I had only started wearing it recently - somewhere within the last year - when it had finally started to fit. Come to think of it, the timing was rather odd. But it meant nothing... Right? Maybe my fingers had just gotten a little bigger.

Of course I had always wondered why it was an arrowhead, seeing that I wasn't an archer. But now I was. At least, one in training. With one of the best coaches that I could have asked for. At least I would have something fun to watch while it was time for the lessons. Although I probably could have used some lessons in sword fighting and knife throwing from Fili and Dwalin. Maybe I would have to ask for their assistance in the matter.

Balin's voice finally broke me from my reverie. "What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?" he asked.

"Aye. Envoys from all seven kingdoms," Thorin said.

The dwarves started to murmur their joy, cheering happily and raising their tankards. I cringed slightly, knowing what was coming. "What do the dwarves of the Iron Hills say? Is Dain with us?" Dwalin asked, over the roar of the others.

"Thorin's cousin," Fili whispered to me.

"Ah," I said, nodding and trying to resist the urge to tell him that I knew that.

"They will not come," Thorin said.

Thorin's eyes briefly dropped down to his soup. For a moment I actually felt quite badly for them. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be so desperate to get back your home, to get back to a place where others could live too, only to have them tell you that it was your job to go and do it. A job so huge, meant for hundreds, to be done by only fifteen. The dwarves dropped their heads and started to murmur in disappointment.

"They say this quest is ours, and ours alone," Thorin continued.

There were more disappointed murmurs as Bilbo popped up from behind Gandalf. "You're going on a quest?" Bilbo asked softly.

"Bilbo, my dear fellow, let us have a little more light," Gandalf said.

Bilbo made something like an affirmative noise. I assumed that he was much more okay with the dwarves being here now that they weren't destroying his things. They were actually being reasonably respectful and rather quiet. Just the way that they really should have been when they first came here. Bilbo brought a candle to the table, where Gandalf was currently spreading out a map that he had taken from his pocket. Everyone leaned forward to get a better look at it.

"Far to the East, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak," Gandalf said, pointing to the Lonely Mountain on the map.

Bilbo came to read over his shoulder. "The Lonely Mountain," Bilbo said slowly, holding the candle above the map.

"Aye. Oin has read the portents, and the portents say it is time," Gloin said, as Gandalf lit his pipe with his hand.

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold: When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end," Oin said.

Bilbo walked back into his pantry a moment later, which, it turned out, still had some food left in it. Mostly vegetables that the dwarves wouldn't have liked, but it was something. Everyone was exchanging looks between themselves as Oin spoke. I let out a soft breath. Smaug had always been one of the most impressive dragons that I had ever seen through television or film. It terrified me. If this was real... I had just volunteered myself to walk into the den of a fire-breathing dragon... and speak to it! Idiot.

For the first time in a while, I was really hoping that this was a dream. I didn't want to fight the dragon. Everything else would be slightly easier. It would be easy to fight off the Wargs and Orcs and spiders and everything else. Because I wasn't going to be alone. But it would be something else entirely to battle Smaug with just Bilbo. Now I knew how he felt right now. But I couldn't react. Thorin was looking for any reason to remove me from the company. Bilbo, upon hearing 'the beast,' now looked concerned.

"Uh... What beast?" Bilbo asked, walking back to the table.

"Well that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age. Airborne fire-breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks, extremely fond of precious metals," Bofur explained.

"Yes, I know what a dragon is," Bilbo said quickly.

Suddenly Ori jumped up from his spot at the table. "I'm not afraid! I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of the Dwarfish iron right up his jacksie," Ori shouted.

It was enough to make me start giggling. Not because I doubted him, because I knew that he would be just fine against Smaug, but it was just because the way that he had done it was adorable. I dropped my head into my hands as Kili and Fili started to laugh. A number of the others dwarves were shouting and laughing, too. But none of them were because they doubted Ori. Maybe it was because they, too, had faith that we could do this. As Ori looked over at me, I gave him a reassuring wink.

"Sit down!" Dori hissed, grabbing his brother and yanking him into the seat.

"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us," Balin started, silencing anyone else who had been speaking. "But we number just thirteen -"

"Pardon?" I interrupted.

"Fourteen," Balin corrected himself. "And not fourteen of the best, nor brightest."

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that a few of the dwarves were grinning at me. Perhaps they appreciated that I was really willing to be a part of this company. Thorin and Dwalin were scowling at me. Balin's latest comment wasn't as appreciated as mine was. The moment that he had said it, numerous complaints were exchanged over the table. Asking about who he was calling dim and shouting at each other. Kili was muttering something about how he might not have been the brightest, but he wasn't that bad.

"What did he say?" Oin asked, raising his ear trumpet.

"We may be few in number, but we're fighters, all of us, to the last dwarf!" Fili shouted, banging on the table with his fist.

"And you forget, we have a wizard in our company. Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time," Kili said excitedly.

Suddenly I remembered where this part of the film went. So I leaned over to Kili and dropped my voice to a whisper. "I don't think Gandalf has killed dragons," I said.

"What?" Kili asked, confused.

"He's relatively peaceful," I said.

Gandalf raised his hand and started shaking his head at them. "Oh, well," Gandalf started, looking very panicked, "now, uh, I - I - I wouldn't say that, I -"

"How many, then?" Dori interrupted.

"Uh, what?" Gandalf asked.

"Well, how many dragons have you killed?" Dori repeated. There was no answer. "Go on, give us a number!"

"Hm," Gandalf coughed.

"Look at what you've started," I whispered to Kili.

It was just a moment later that everyone jumped to their feet and started shouting at each other. I had to give them one thing, there was nothing that dwarves didn't seem to be extremely passionate about. Gandalf started coughing, obviously embarrassed, on his pipe smoke. It was a little hard to hear who was who as they started arguing about the number of dragons that Gandalf had killed. Bilbo was standing behind Thorin nervously, who was watching irritably.

"Uh - Excuse me. Please, please," Bilbo tried to get them to calm down.

Suddenly Thorin jumped up in anger and bellowed, "Shazara!"

That was all that it took to get each and every dwarf to sit down and shut up. It startled me slightly. Thorin was much louder than I would have given him credit for. The way that they all fell into their seats normally would have been a little comical. They did it with such synchronization. But I knew that it would have been the wrong time to laugh. Dwalin was the last to drop into his seat. He did so, moving slower and slightly more ashamed than the rest. Thorin was giving everyone a brutal glare.

"Silence," Kili whisper-translated for me.

"I did catch onto that one, believe it or not," I whispered back.

"If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them too? Rumors have begun to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen for sixty years. Eyes look east to the Mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor? Du Bekâr! Du Bekâr!" Thorin shouted.

"To arms," Kili whispered.

"Thanks for being my translator," I teased.

"My pleasure," he said.

In the meantime, all of the dwarves were cheering. I smiled down into my lap. That was their home. For a number of them, that had been the home that they had known before Smaug had attacked. The thought made me smile. Getting to be here, I realized just how excited that I was for them. Because right now it didn't feel like they were movie characters. Right now, it felt like they were my friends. Right now, it felt like I was really in Hobbiton and I would really be going on this journey.

"You forget: the front gate is sealed," Balin said, startling everyone. The sudden cheers dropped off as quickly as they had started. "There is no way into the mountain."

"That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true," Gandalf said.

Everyone's gazes turned over to Gandalf to see what was happening. I raised a brow when I saw that his hands were empty. I had thought that he was supposed to have the key. All of a sudden he started twiddling his fingers. A moment later, Gandalf produced something that looked just like the dwarvish key from the film. I smiled at the sight of it. It was very impressive, rather large, looked heavy, and was ornately wrought. Thorin looked at it in wonder as the table went completely silent.

Gandalf was holding it right out to him. "How came you by this?" Thorin asked breathlessly.

"It was given to me by your father, by Thrain, for safekeeping. It is yours now," Gandalf said.

To be given something like that by a parent, whom you had thought was dead... Likely was dead. There was something about the moment that almost choked me up. It almost made me realize why Thorin was the way that he was. A hardened warrior who had lost his home, father, and grandfather to a fire-breathing dragon. Who thought that Azog the Defiler was dead. I wasn't sure if I should tell him that truth or not and if it would give away my secret. As I was thinking, everyone else was looking on in wonder.

Thorin took the key and turned it over in his hand, still looking stunned. "If there is a key, there must be a door," Fili said slowly, breaking the tense silence.

"Your deductive reasoning is astounding," I muttered.

Unfortunately I hadn't been thinking about how easy it would be to hear something like that in the quiet of the room. I shouldn't have said that, damn it. To my surprise, all of the dwarves started to laugh. I had thought that they would have yelled at me. But they thought that it was funny. Fili reached over and whopped me gently over the back of the head. I laughed, dropping my head into my hands. Kili was laughing at his brother's expense. To my surprise, even the corners of Thorin's lips tilted upwards.

He definitely didn't like me, but apparently he thought that I was at least a little comical at the expense of his family. And everyone knew that it was just a joke. Gandalf had recovered from the earlier joke and nodded at Fili. The tense air was back as the dwarves stopped laughing and looked back at the wizard. Gandalf was now pointing down to some runes on the corner of the map with his pipe.

"These runes speak of a hidden passage to the lower halls," Gandalf explained.

"There's another way in!" Kili said excitedly.

From the other end of the table, I noticed Thorin send his nephew a fond smile. "Well, if we can find it, but dwarf doors are invisible when closed. The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map and I do not have the skill to find it," Gandalf said as Bofur leaned into the map. "But there are others in Middle Earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage." Gandalf sent Bilbo a look before glancing back at the others. "But, if we are careful and clever, I believe that it can be done."

"That's why we need a burglar," Ori said brightly.

Bilbo was leaning over Thorin's shoulder to pick up the edge of the map and read it. "Hm... A good one, too," Bilbo said dumbly, grabbing his suspenders. He didn't quite make the connection just yet. "An expert, I'd imagine."

"And are you?" Gloin asked.

Everyone at the table looked up to stare at Bilbo, who turned back and forth for a moment to see who they were looking at. Upon realizing that they were speaking to him, he asked, "Am I what?"

"He said he's an expert! Hey, hey!" Oin cheered.

Oin pumped his fist forward and I smiled. Several of the dwarves laughed and most smiled. I assumed that it would take some time to get used to Oin and his ear trumpet. Too bad he wasn't back home in my own world. He would have loved to have a hearing aid. It would have been so much easier than having to carry that stupid thing around with him everywhere he went. Bilbo looked horrified, now realizing that we were speaking about him to come on the adventure with us.

"M - Me? No, no, no, no, no. I'm not a burglar; I've never stolen a thing in my life," Bilbo said loudly.

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Baggins. He's hardly burglar material," Balin said.

"Ah," Bilbo muttered, nodding his head in agreement.

"Aye, the wild is no place for gentlefolk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves," Dwalin growled.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that his gaze was flickering in between Bilbo and myself before they finally settled back on Thorin. My jaw almost dropped. Not only could I likely hit harder, but I was smarter! At least, I liked to think so. And I knew what we would be walking into. Irritably I started to stand to shout my point, that I was important and could manage myself out in the woods, but Fili and Kili took an arm each and yanked me down to seat me back in between them.

Hitting the wooden bench roughly, I turned back to them with a little huff, but they both gave me pointed looks that were telling me that arguing right now would have been useless. After all, there were a number other arguments that were happening right now. As Bilbo tried to nod his agreement that he didn't belong out there the dwarves began arguing. Gandalf, obviously growing angry, rose to his full height and cast a darkness over us as he started speaking in his 'powerful' voice. We all stopped in awe.

"Enough! If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, then a burglar he is," Gandalf growled.

Everyone was leaning back, now looking terrified. Even I was a little panicked. I hadn't thought that Gandalf would be quite that frightening. But now he was twice as tall as me and his voice was making the entire place shake. The shadow left the room just as quickly as it had come in as Gandalf took a seat again. It didn't stop anyone from looking terrified of the wizard. Gandalf cleared his throat, looking irritated and a little ashamed at himself.

"Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet. In fact, they can pass unseen by most if they choose. And while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of dwarf, the scent of hobbit is all but unknown to him, which gives us a distinct advantage. You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company, and I have chosen Mr. Baggins. There's a lot more to him than appearances suggest, and he's got a great deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself. You must trust me on this.

"You will cease your treatment of Mr. Baggins and Miss Ambrose. As for Miss Ambrose, she might be a mortal woman, but that does not mean that she will be useless towards this quest. She possesses qualities and knowledge that the rest of us could only dream of. I do believe that she understands the Black Speech," Gandalf continued. That was... Orc language? I remembered the subtitles from the movie so I nodded.

"She possesses natural skill with the bow and arrow and, with time, she will perfect her skills. She will be of use once we arrive in Erebor. She has a natural gift of speech. As she has already said, dragons are easily distracted. She is brave enough to set foot into that mountain, even with the knowledge of the danger, without having any ties to it. She is willing to risk her life to retrieve your home. Far more than most other people would do. She may not be of dwarvish bloodline, but she is just as brave as the rest of you are. Perhaps even more so."

The room was silent for a long time after Gandalf's speech. I found myself a little embarrassed at the way that he had called out Bilbo and me. Not that it was for anything bad, but that didn't matter to me. Everyone was looking back and forth around the table and I noticed a few strange gazes being shot my way. Even by Fili and Kili. It probably didn't help that Gandalf had just admitted that I could speak the same language as the Orc's. Or not speak it, but I could remember what they were saying from the movie.

Thank you, I mouthed to Gandalf.

"Very well. We will do it your way," Thorin finally caved.

Bilbo leaned forward to shake his head. "No, no, no," Bilbo stuttered.

"Give them the contract," Thorin ordered, ignoring Bilbo's pleas.

"Please," Bilbo begged.

"Alright, we're off!" Bofur cheered.

The rest of the dwarves at the table were clapping and cheering. I found myself getting a little bit antsy to see the contract. There was something incredibly exciting about getting to sign the contract. Even if this was just a dream. Fili and Kili were giving me reassuring nods as Balin went into his cloak to pull out two copies of what I assumed was the contract. Balin got to his feet and handed one copy each of the long contract to the two of us. I didn't bother reading it over.

"Thank you. Can I have a p - quill?" I corrected myself, remembering that they didn't have pens here. I just hoped that a quill was correct.

Apparently I was right. Because Balin leaned over and handed me a small feather. "Here you are, lassie," Balin said.

"Thank you," I chirped.

Unraveling the contract, I glanced down at it. I supposed that there was no point in reading it, really. I already knew what it was going to say. And Bilbo had read it in the movie. I knew that funeral arrangements were being made just in case. But I also knew that this was just a dream. It didn't matter. This was going to be over with soon enough. But that didn't stop me from reading over it slowly. I knew that most of the company was watching me to see what I would do. Now was not the time to hesitate.

But something was stopping me from signing. Sign it, you big baby. It's just a dream. Nothing is going to happen. If I was going to die from anything, it would be from alcohol poisoning or a drug overdose back in that shitty little bathroom of the bar. But there was some reason that I felt a little awkward about signing it. There had to be a reason. But I couldn't be sure why. I just knew that I had to do it. Dream or not. So I placed my quill in the ink well, pressed it against the parchment, and signed my name carefully.

My hand was shaking but my signature was perfectly legible. Kili and Fili were smiling at me as I looped the 'E' at the end of my last name. I knew exactly what it was that I had just sighed up to do. I knew that I was now in charge of saving the lives of those three men. Two of whom I was very fond of and the other I wanted to prove wrong. Two of whom very obviously looked me... One of whom I had a crush on. And the other didn't like me at all... But I would save them if it was the last thing that I did.

The more that I thought about it, the more that I realized something that was now only occurring to me from time to time, rather than every single moment. This was feeling less and less like a dream. With each passing moment I was getting more convinced that this might have been real. The thought made me nauseous. Was there a chance that all of this could have been real? Was there a chance that I had really managed to land myself in Middle Earth? That would be a problem...

Hopefully Lord Elrond could help me if that was the case. As I finished dating the contract, which I needed Fili's help with, I slowly handed it back to Balin. I had to pretend that it was just a case of having been traveling too much and had forgotten the date. As I gave up the contract, I noticed that a few of the dwarves were smiling at me. Particularly Fili and Kili. I looked back at them and smiled. At least I would have some friends during the journey. Friends who were destined to die, of course...

"It's just the usual summary of out of pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth," Balin explained, handing over the contract to Bilbo.

Bilbo never took it, so Thorin grabbed the contract and shoved it back into Bilbo's chest, over his shoulder. "Funeral arrangements?" Bilbo stuttered.

He gave me a quick look and I gave him as reassuring of a smile as I could. What could I really say? I promise that you won't die. You're actually going to make it just fine with only a few near misses. Instead you're going to comfort Thorin in his dying moments. That wasn't something that I could tell him. I just had to smile at him and hope that he went with it. As Bilbo stepped back a few feet to read the contract, I saw Thorin stand and lean over to Gandalf, lowering his voice.

"I cannot guarantee their safety," Thorin said, obviously also referring to me.

"Understood," Gandalf said.

"Nor will I be responsible for their fate," Thorin said.

Gandalf looked at Thorin for a long while. "Agreed," Gandalf eventually said.

Instantly I whipped around. I had been about to strike up a conversation with Fili about knife throwing, but it was forgotten about now. I was going to be just fine. I didn't have much to worry about when it came to myself. For one, I was a perfectly competent fighter. And for another, I knew exactly what was going to happen. I would know how to avoid any disaster that was coming our way. The real person that Thorin was going to have to watch out for was himself and his nephews. Not that I could say that.

Bilbo started reading part of the contract out loud. "Terms: Cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding one fourteenth of total profit, if any. Seems fair. Eh. Present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof including but not limited to lacerations... evisceration... incineration?" Bilbo asked, his voice going high at the end.

"Oh, aye, he'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye," Bofur said.

"Oh, Bofur, perhaps you shouldn't say that," I mumbled.

Everyone in my world knew what was about to happen. And I knew that there wasn't much of a choice for me to stop it. I would just have to wait. Luckily I did have quite a bit of experience dealing with someone who had fainted. I had never done so myself, but I had treated a number of people who had. Bilbo dropped the contract to the side and looked straight up at the ceiling. I leaned forward to see if he was okay. He definitely looked a little breathless.

"Huh," Bilbo whined.

"You all right, laddie?" Balin asked, leaning forward.

"It's okay, Bilbo. Should we let you sit down?" I asked.

To my surprise, despite having seen the movie before, no one got up to help Bilbo. My jaws clenched and I narrowed my eyes at the sight of them. Shouldn't they have known that the poor thing was about to pass out. I shoved Fili back off to the side and brushed past him. The brothers looked like they might have been about to follow me, but they didn't. They merely let me brush by everyone to come stand at Bilbo's side. Bilbo was bent over, clearly nauseous and pained as he was breathing in and out quickly.

"Uh, yeah... Feel a bit faint," Bilbo said, standing back upright.

"Think furnace with wings," Bofur said, standing up

"That is not helpful," I snapped, whipping back to Bofur.

"Air, I - I - I need air," Bilbo stuttered.

"Flash of light, searing pain, then... Poof! You're nothing more than a pile of ash," Bofur said.

"Bofur!" I barked.

The older dwarf turned back to me with a surprised glance. He was clearly wondering what the hell I was giving him that look for. But I knew exactly what I was giving him that look for. He clearly didn't understand that he was making Bilbo absolutely terrified for himself. Bilbo straightened up and breathed in and out heavily. He was clearly trying to compose himself as the others stared at him. For a moment I thought that he might be alright. He looked surprisingly steady.

"Hmm. Nope," Bilbo said.

I had almost forgotten just how fast it all happened in the movie. I had almost forgotten about how fast people really did pass out. Some kids used to do just that after a fight. They would look so steady as they got back to their feet before suddenly stopping and dropping to the ground. As Bilbo fell on the floor in a faint, I dashed over and caught him around the shoulder and waist. He was a little heavier than I was expecting, so I was only able to slow down his fall to the floor a little bit to rest him against the floor.

"Ah, very helpful, Bofur," Gandalf said, as everyone got to their feet.

"What did I say?" Bofur asked.

"Back up. I've got him," I warned.

The last thing that I needed was to have everyone standing that close to him while he was trying to regain consciousness. He had just lost it from fear and becoming overwhelmed. Since there were no injuries, it meant that he would likely wake back up in a matter of minutes. Two or three, at the most. I slowly rolled Bilbo onto his back and tipped his head backwards. The others were watching me curiously. But I ignored them and tried to focus on waking Bilbo back up.

Although I had come close a number of times, I had never fainted. But being here in Middle Earth, I had already wanted to faint three or four times. And that was just in a few hours. Maybe I did know how Bilbo felt. The others were chatting back and forth softly, trying to figure out what happened. I continued to ignore them, even when Fili, Kili, and Oin came to check on us. As I gently tapped against Bilbo's face, waiting for him to wake up, I saw his eyes start to flicker behind his eyelids.

"Water, please," I said to whoever was listening.

There were some rapid footsteps before someone came back up to me. "Here you are," Fili said, handing me a cup of water.

"Thanks," I said. A second later Bilbo's hazy eyes opened to look at me. "Bilbo? Are you alright?"

"Oh... Yes... Yes. I'm fine," Bilbo said breathlessly.

"Come on. You're going to be alright. Just sit here, alright?" I tried to comfort him quietly.

"Mm-hmm," Bilbo groaned.

The last thing that he needed to do was stand up right away. Thankfully Bilbo was listening to me and not providing a struggle. He let me order him around to lay on the ground and rest for at least fifteen to twenty minutes. Thankfully the others weren't talking. They were letting the two of us try and get him back to normal. Letting him sit there for a while would provide enough time for the blood to return to the brain. The dwarves all listened to me as I asked them to give Bilbo room to breathe.

The air in the room was warm, considering the fact that there were so many people in here and there was no such thing as air conditioning in Middle Earth. So I grabbed a spare sheet of parchment and started fanning Bilbo, who looked like he was getting overheated again. Gandalf and Thorin were the only people who were standing close to me, since they were going to help when it was time to get him up. I tried to give Bilbo some food once he was fully conscious and stable, but he refused.

Which was too bad, since food and water would have helped revive him quicker. As the minutes ticked by, I eventually agreed that it was time to let him up. Gandalf and Thorin helped him up slowly at my order. We placed him up in a chair where I ordered him to stay still. It would allow blood flow to the brain to fully regain. And abrupt rising could precipitate another fainting episode. The last thing that I needed was for Bilbo to try to walk too soon after the incident.

After another order from Oin, the dwarves walked off to other parts of the home. At my request, they stayed reasonably quiet to help Bilbo recover from the fainting episode. Bilbo was sitting on his chair as I started to light some candles, trying to relax him and make him a little more comfortable. Once he had drank a few cups of water, I took a mug of tea from Ori and thanked him softly. I handed the mug over to Bilbo and sat quietly on the edge of his chair, listening as he spoke quietly with Gandalf.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly.

"I'll be all right, let me just sit quietly for a moment," Bilbo said, looking at the floor.

"You've been sitting quietly for far too long," Gandalf snapped. Bilbo looked like he might have tried to argue, but he was cut off by Gandalf again. "Tell me; when did doilies and your mother's dishes become so important to you? I remember a young hobbit who always was running off in search of elves and the woods, who'd stay out late, come home after dark, trailing mud and twigs and fireflies. A young hobbit who would have liked nothing better than to find out what was beyond the borders of the Shire. The world is not in your books and maps; it's out there."

"I can't just go running off into the blue," Bilbo said, raising up a finger the moment that his voice cracked. "I am a Baggins, of Bag End."

"You are also a Took." Bilbo's head dropped back onto the chair. "Did you know that your great-great-great-great-uncle, Bullroarer Took, was so large he could ride a real horse?" Gandalf asked.

Turning off to the side, I saw that Gandalf was pointing towards a portrait on the wall. I realized with a hint of embarrassment that it meant that Bullroarer was likely taller than I was. The dwarves would only have ponies. Thankfully I was small enough that I would likely be riding one. Bullroarer looked much like Bilbo did. Long, curly, hair that gave him a youthful appearance. He was smiling with something like an axe thrown over his shoulder and a tankard of what I assumed was ale in the other hand.

"Yes," Bilbo said softly.

"Well he could," Gandalf continued irritably. "In the Battle of Green Fields, he charged the goblin ranks. He swung his club so hard it knocked the Goblin King's head clean off, and it sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole. And thus the battle was won, and the game of golf invented at the same time."

Bilbo smiled softly as Gandalf seated himself in a chair across from him. "I do believe you made that up," Bilbo said.

"Well, all good stories deserve embellishment. You'll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back," Gandalf said.

Bilbo laughed bitterly and looked away. "Can you promise that I will come back?" Bilbo asked.

Gandalf thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. "No. And if you do, you will not be the same," Gandalf admitted.

"That's what I thought. Sorry, Gandalf, I can't sign this," Bilbo said, placing down his mug and getting to hit feet. "You've got the wrong Hobbit. You have Leah. She can help with anything that I can't."

"Bilbo -" I started.

"You know what to do, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said.

"You really think that I can do this? Everything? Help bring Bilbo with us, help save the mountain from the dragon, and help with whatever battles happen along the way?" I asked.

"I have more faith in you than you know, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said.

"Why?" I asked softly.

"Because you are stronger than you know. You are stronger than anyone knows. The Valar wanted you here for a reason. They do not take these things lightly," Gandalf explained.

"This isn't a dream?" I asked again.

"No," Gandalf said gravely.

"Can you promise that I will make it back?" I asked.

"No," Gandalf repeated.

"What if I die here?" I asked.

"That may be a risk that you will have to take. Tell me, is it worth it?" Gandalf asked. I hesitated for a moment. "You have wanted your own adventure for your entire life. This is what you have wanted. You have already bonded with some of the dwarves, I see." My cheeks started to burn. "A family, a place to belong, and a purpose; they can offer those to you."

"You honestly believe that?" I asked.

"I do."

"I'll need your help," I muttered.

"And you will have it. My assistance, theirs, and perhaps even more than that," Gandalf said mysteriously.

Nodding blankly, I got to my feet. "I'll go talk to him," I whispered.

Gandalf gave me a thankful smile as I got to my feet. I couldn't believe what I had just signed on to do. I had just told him that I was going to go on a quest to kill a fire-breathing dragon before battling against Orcs to attempt to save those three men out there. My stomach was churning in knots. This place was feeling less and less like a dream. If I was being honest, I actually wanted this to be real. I wanted to out there. And I wanted to get to know the rest of the dwarves. Particularly Fili and Kili.

Walking out of the little study that we had been in a moment before, I headed out into the hallway where Bilbo had just been. I assumed that he had gone back to his bedroom for the night. The dwarves were walking back and forth as they attempted to find some place to quiet down for the night. Gandalf let out a small sigh as I stalked off. But I stopped walking and pressed myself back into the corner when I saw that Balin and Thorin were speaking about Bilbo, whom they had clearly seen walk away.

"It appears we have lost our burglar. Probably for the best," Balin said. Thorin's gaze slowly turned back to him. "The odds were always against us. After all, what are we? Merchants, miners, tinkers, toy makers; hardly the stuff of legend."

"There are a few warriors among us," Thorin said, giving Balin a knowing smile.

"Old warriors," Balin corrected.

"I will take each and every one of these dwarves over an army from the Iron Hills. For when I called upon them, they came. Loyalty. Honor. A willing heart. I can ask no more than that," Thorin said.

Balin stood up from the chest that he was sitting on and shook his head. "You don't have to do this. You have a choice. You've done honorably by our people. You have built a new life for us in the Blue Mountains, a life of peace and plenty. A life that is worth more than all the gold in Erebor," Balin said.

Some part of me wanted to agree with Balin. I wanted to tell Thorin that he didn't have to do this. He didn't have to go out to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim Erebor. But I understood why he refused. I understood why he wanted to go. That was his home and it had been torn out from underneath him. And now that he had the key, that last connection to his father and grandfather, I knew that he would stop at nothing to get Erebor back. Thorin - proving my point - held out the key to Balin.

"From my grandfather to my father, this has come to me. They dreamt of the day when the dwarves of Erebor would reclaim their homeland. There is no choice, Balin. Not for me," Thorin said softly.

Balin nodded slowly. "Then we are with you, laddie. We will see it done," Balin said, patting Thorin on the arm.

There was a small smile on his face. I let out a soft breath and pushed myself off of the door frame. Balin and Thorin glanced back at me but neither said anything. I merely gave them a short nod before strutting off. I turned a few corners - remembering the way from Bilbo's tour earlier - and headed straight towards Bilbo's room. The door was open, but I knocked gently on the wooden frame anyways. I could see him sitting on the bed. He glanced up at me and I smiled, earning one back quickly.

"Thank you for earlier," Bilbo said as I walked into the room.

"You're welcome. I've dealt with a number of fainting episodes before," I admitted.

"Really?" Bilbo asked, looking surprised.

"Yes. Mostly dehydration. People would be wrestling and fighting and then they would pass out from dehydration. We learned to help them recover pretty quickly," I said.

"Are you good with healing?" Bilbo asked.

Laughing under my breath, I shook my head. The only things that I knew were what they taught us in the gym to keep the people who got inured healthy until the ambulance arrived. "Not really. I just know the minimal amount," I said.

"Well I appreciate what you did for me," Bilbo said.

"My pleasure." The two of us sat in silence for a while as I pulled my knees up to my chest. "So... you're really not coming with us?" I asked softly.

Bilbo shook his head, looking very regretful. "I can't, Leah. I'm just a hobbit," Bilbo said softly.

"I'm just a woman," I pointed out.

Bilbo gave me a little smile before shaking his head. "You are much more than that. I can tell," Bilbo said.

"Thank you, Bilbo." The two of us smiled at each other before I let out a little breath. There had to be a way that I could get him to agree to come with us. "You know, you can come with us," I goaded.

Bilbo let out a soft breath. "Leah -"

"They'll get used to you eventually. They're not used to me yet. They probably won't be for a long time. But we can get there," I argued, smiling brightly. "Together."

Bilbo gave me another long smile. I had been hoping to guilt him into it. "You're very sweet, Leah. But I belong here. In Hobbiton. In Bag End. I'm very sorry to have let you down," Bilbo said guiltily.

But I knew that he would come with us anyways. He just needed the night to get used to it. He just needed to sleep on it. "You haven't let me down. I understand not wanting to go. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't frightened about everything. This whole trip terrifies me," I said, waving carelessly around myself.

"Yet you're going to go anyways?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"Yes," I said.

"Why?" Bilbo asked.

Laughing under my breath, I tried to come up with a reason that wouldn't make me sound insane. "Because I like doing things that scare me. I like that feeling. I like knowing that there was something that scared me and I managed to overcome it," I said.

"Do be careful out there. You don't have to prove yourself," Bilbo said, placing a hand over my own.

"I know. But I think that there's something that I have to do," I said somewhat awkwardly.

Save those three men. Simple task... Right? "Defeating a dragon?" Bilbo asked teasingly.

Shrugging my shoulders, I started picking at my nails. "I'm not quite sure yet. I just know that I have to... find out who I am. For so long I've felt like I had no place in the world," I muttered.

"You?" Bilbo asked, surprised. I nodded. "I somehow doubt that."

Smiling at him, I shrugged my shoulders again. It was the truth, no matter how hard I had tried to ignore it. "Well it's true. I never really fit in anywhere that I've been before."

"Not even in Rohan?" Bilbo asked.

Well, I've never been to Rohan before. But as for Florida... "Definitely not in Rohan. I had friends who I loved. But they always just seemed so much different than me. They had the things that they loved and I just... didn't. Even when I did the things that I loved, it didn't seem like I loved them enough. Nothing ever seemed to really hold my attention," I explained as simply as I could.

"What about your family?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"I love them, but to be honest, I didn't really fit in with them either," I said.

My mother had always been so busy with work, my father was so busy just being awkward, and my sister was so busy being a teenager. I had never fit in with them. "So what are you searching for?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"I'll let you know when I find it," I said.

We stared at each other before laughing. "Come back and visit when everything is done, will you?" Bilbo asked, putting a hand on my knee.

"Of course." I made a move to stand before remembering something that would happen tomorrow morning. Before Bilbo caught up. "Bilbo? I'm betting on you. Just so you know," I said brightly.

"Don't bet too much," Bilbo warned.

I walked back and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'll always have faith in you, Bilbo. Even when you don't have faith in yourself," I said as sweetly as possible.

"Be careful out there. I genuinely hope that you find whatever you're looking for," Bilbo said.

"Thank you."

"Goodbye, Leah."

"I'll see you soon, Bilbo," I said pointedly.

Standing from the bed, I smiled at Bilbo and gave him a tight hug. The two of us stayed together for a few minutes as I let out a soft breath. I would see him again tomorrow. But then I remembered that when I went to bed, I would likely wake up back in my own world tomorrow. So I wanted to say goodnight to Bilbo while I had the chance. I placed a small kiss on the side of his cheek and gave his hand a tight squeeze before turning and leaving the bedroom before I could think otherwise.

A moment later I headed back out into the living room. I would have to pass the time before I woke up back in my own world. I just hoped that I had done enough with Bilbo to make absolutely sure that he would be coming with us. It would also help if I could make him a little more confident in the earlier legs of our journey. Their journey. Whatever. I smiled when I saw that all of the dwarves were slowly gathering in the living room.

This had always been one of my favorite scenes in the movie. It was one of the few scenes that I remembered from the book. I always had liked the songs that Tolkien wrote. Slowly I headed towards them but decided to hang back. I wasn't so sure that they would have wanted me to be right there with them. This song was about them and their journey. They were smoking on their pipes by the fire. They had already began humming. Gandalf was listening from nearby while Bilbo listened from his bedroom.

Suddenly a hand fell on my back. I jumped slightly and saw that it was a grinning Kili, who was pushing me forwards. "What are they doing?" I asked quietly.

"Come on," Kili whispered.

So I smiled and nodded. Maybe it was the right thing to be with them. I would only get to really see this once, after all. So I walked in besides Fili and Kili into the living room. Thorin was staring down into the fire as they started to hum a little louder. I dropped into a chair next to Kili and watched them sing, trying to resist the urge to join in. Being here in person and listening to them was nothing like the movie. It was so much realer now. The feelings were really there. I could actually feel their pain at their loss.

"Far over the misty mountains cold  
To dungeons deep and caverns old  
We must away ere break of day  
To find our long forgotten gold.

The pines were roaring on the height  
The winds were moaning in the night  
The fire was red, it flaming spread  
The trees like torches blazed with light."

As their voices dropped off, the humming continued. I felt my eyes getting the tiniest bit heavy. It was such a somber tune, but that didn't change the fact that there was something very peaceful about the song. I could see why Bilbo came along now. It was this song. This moment, right here. There was something about their voices, their determination to get back home, that sent something through me. For the first time, I so desperately wanted this to be real. I wanted to be here and help them.

Maybe it was because right now I actually felt terribly about the fact that they had lost their home. They weren't just characters to me anymore. They were actual people who each had their own stories. After a few seconds I let out a deep breath and dropped a little bit further into my chair. No one dared to move or speak and shatter the tense silence. Thorin's face was the worst. I knew how desperately he wanted his home back. And I couldn't really blame him. If it was me, I would have wanted my home back, too.

That was when a strange thought hit me. Where was my home? For the first time in my life, my home didn't feel like that little two-story craftsman back in Florida. That didn't feel like home. It just felt like a place for me to live until I found my real home. Where had that came from? Was there a chance that Gandalf was right and I really was someone from Middle Earth? Or was Florida and my own realm really my home? I didn't know. Things were so fuzzy right now. I couldn't figure out where I was from.

Unfortunately it didn't help that I still couldn't figure out if this was a dream or not. I wanted to think that it was. It would have made things much easier. I would get up and go back to school and forget about this. I supposed that when I fell asleep tonight and woke up in the morning, I would know. It would depend if I woke up back in the hospital back home or still in Bag End. I found myself really hoping that I would wake up here. I couldn't figure out why, no matter how hard I tried to think about it.

My head was pounding again. Another stress headache. At least the noise had gone down. Everyone was quieting down to go to sleep. It was getting late for them, at least. I was used to being up until the middle of the night, either partying or doing some type of homework. So I really wasn't ready to go to bed quite yet. So I got to my feet and walked outside. Everyone seemed to be in their own heads so no one asked where I was going. For a moment I thought about shooting, but I quickly decided against it.

The only thing that I wanted to do right now was try and relax myself. Because I was tenser than I had been in a long time. So I grabbed my journal and a quill and seated myself in Bilbo's front yard, breathing in the fresh air. I looked up at the stars and smiled. They were so pretty here. I could never see them back home from all of the light pollution. Just another thing that I liked here better. After a few minutes, I ultimately decided to write a letter to Harley. Not that I could send it to her.

Harley,

You know, I don't think that I've ever had to write a letter to you before. I guess we're so used to texting each other, aren't we? It's kind of pathetic. Honestly I don't think that I would miss cell phones. They were always kind of annoying. And I definitely won't miss having to pay for them. You're so lucky that you still have Mom and Dad to pay for everything.

I guess now they only have one kid to pay for. Which I think is what they've always wanted. Not that they didn't love either one of us. I know that they loved us both. They always will. No matter what happens. To me or to you. I sound so insane. I know that I do. I feel like I'm going completely insane.

You have to know what's happening right now. I don't even know what's happening right now, though. I went out with Amber, Layla, Jessica, and Brian last night. Tonight. I don't know. But I told you about that. I was drunk when I went to the bathroom. I was looking in the mirror when, all of a sudden, it started rippling. I fell and when I fell I thought that I would hit the floor. But when I hit the ground I ended up in the very damn movie that you're watching right now!

Harley, I'm in the middle of the fucking Hobbit. Not really the middle. I'm actually at the very beginning. Right now the dwarves just sang that song. Misty Mountains Cold. It's really pretty. The movie didn't even compare to the way that they really sounded. I'm not crazy, Harley. At least, I don't think that I am. I'm really in The Hobbit. The first one. An Unexpected Journey. And trust me, this was very unexpected. On all accounts.

Gandalf found me and told me that I apparently belong here. Something about how Mom and Dad were my guardians in our world. Yeah, right. Apparently he doesn't know them. How much have they really looked after us? We raised each other. But maybe that was the point. Maybe I was supposed to be self-reliant. But what about you? I wish that you were here. I feel so strange here. No one understands what I'm talking about since I'm not really from this world.

Anyways, guess what it is that the Valar (their version of god) want me to do? They want me to change the ending. They want me to keep Fili, Kili, and Thorin alive! How the hell do I do that? I'm learning the bow and arrows - which I'm surprisingly good with - but I can't stop their damned deaths. Thorin doesn't seem to like me very much. Oh, yeah, I've already met all of the dwarves.

There are a few of them who seem to like me. Most notably, Ori, Bilbo, Fili, and Kili. Might I say, the two brothers are even cuter than the actors in the movie! Just because I know that you'd be messing with me to take my chance, I'm having a little bit of fun with them. The dark-haired one. Kili. Tauriel, who? He gave me a cheesy movie-moment archery lesson. Which I suppose makes sense, seeing as we're in a movie. He's going to keep giving me them on Thorin's orders. Joke's on him. I'll enjoy them.

I miss you. I miss Mom and Dad, as weird as that is. Hopefully when I wake up I'll be back home and this will all be one super-surreal dream and I'll enroll myself in an AA program to make sure that this never happens again. I'll see you soon, I hope.

Love always,  
Leah.

The moment that I had finished with the letter, I laughed to myself. The one person that I had always been open and happy with was Harley, as insane as she drove me. I guessed that was the point of having a sister. I closed the journal, put the quill away, and placed them at my sides. A moment later I dropped back into the grass and stared up at the sky. Being here made me wish that I had gone camping a little more when I was back at home. Maybe I would have to do that when I got back.

They were so beautiful. This whole place was stunning. The movies could have never done it justice. It made me mildly hopeful that I could at least get to Rivendell. That would be incredible. It didn't matter. This one moment was enough. The natural beauty of the Shire. I knew that Harley would have loved the sight of them. But she wouldn't have actually wanted to be out here. She wasn't much for camping or living off of the land or anything like that. The door creaked and I glanced back to see Kili walking out to me.

Biting back a smile, I waited for him to take a seat next to me. "Not planning on sleeping out here, are you?" Kili teased.

Shaking my head, I leaned up and wrapped my arms around my knees. "No. I think I'll enjoy sleeping inside for as long as I can before we get into the woods. Just wanted to get some air. A little stifling in there," I said.

Kili laughed under his breath. "It gets that way around them," he admitted.

I shook my head and smiled back at him. "It's sweet. The way that you all interact. You're like one big family," I said wistfully.

I wished that my own family was like that. "We are," Kili said.

"My own family - my actual one - doesn't even act like that with each other."

"Really?"

"Yes. I know that we love each other, it's just... we don't always speak," I said. Kili raised a brow confusedly. "My sister is one of my best friends but she's got her own life. My mother, I think she barely notices me. I wouldn't even be surprised if she didn't notice that I was gone. My father is kind of a normal father. He's always there, but he doesn't get too involved. We never eat and most of our conversations are forced."

Kili was silent for a little while. "That sounds... distant," he finally said.

"It is."

"Dwarves have a very strong sense of familial bonds. It's just the way that we are," Kili said.

"I wish that my family was like that. Maybe when I get back, things will be a little different. I don't know... Maybe I just need some time to get away from them," I said awkwardly.

To be completely honest, the only person that I genuinely missed was Harley. "Is that the way that the race of man are with their families?" Kili asked.

"Some of them. Where I'm from. Maybe this will change things," I said.

"You're really coming along?" Kili asked.

My brow quirked. "I really am. Don't want me there?" I asked.

"No, of course I do," Kili said quickly.

"You think that just because I'm a woman, I'll have to rely on the thirteen of you to protect me, just the way that you'll all have to protect Bilbo," I said slowly.

"I didn't say that," Kili said.

Obviously I was making him nervous. I tried to calm down and remember that it was just the way that he was. "You were thinking it. It's alright. I'm used to it. Even in Rohan, that's the way that everyone was. They thought that the women needed to be protected by the men. They thought that it wasn't right for the women to fight," I said gently.

Kili obviously spent a while looking for the right words. "But you did anyways," Kili finally said.

Laughing at the memory of knocking out a man at least fifty pounds heavier than me, I nodded. "Yes. I did. I don't know, I guess I just always wanted to do something else with my life. Be a little different," I said.

"I think you're very different," Kili said.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I asked curiously.

"It's good," Kili said quickly.

The two of us sat in silence for a while as I smiled and looked back up at the stars. "I'm sorry that you got suckered into having to teach me to use a bow," I finally said after a few minutes.

Kili glanced back and shook his head. "That's all right. You're actually quite good for a beginner," Kili said.

My brows knitted. "Somehow that sounds like an insult," I teased.

Kili laughed again. "It wasn't meant as one," he said.

And I believed him. So I nodded and glanced back at him. He was still watching me, almost as if he was trying to figure something out. There was something about Kili... The way that he looked at me... It was like he was trying to figure something out about me. Like he was trying to find out the truth, which made me nervous. So I gave a soft smile that he returned. I wanted to try and distract him to make sure that he wasn't about to question me more on my life.

"Have you ever actually seen Erebor before?" I asked suddenly.

"No. Smaug destroyed Dale and attacked the mountain long before Fili and I were born. But we grew up on stories of its magnificence. When Thorin declared that it was time to reclaim the mountain, we knew that we had to go. Even though we had never seen it, we knew that it was home," Kili explained.

The way that he spoke was so passionate. It was enough to make me smile. It was sweet, the way that he spoke about his home. A place that he had never even seen before. I wished that I could have heard the stories that Thorin had told Fili and Kili about Erebor when they were growing up. I assumed that it would have been fascinating. The way that he spoke about Erebor though, it was the same way that I was feeling right now. It felt like I was at home, just being here.

"Yes. I think I know how you feel. I hope that you get to see it," I said sweetly, placing a hand over his.

Suddenly I realized that it was probably the wrong thing to do. We weren't back home in my own realm. We were definitely a little more forward where I was from. I had to remember that. They took it slow out here. So I went to retract my hand. Before I could, Kili turned over my hand, keeping a soft grip on it. Despite having been in far more intimate situations before, my cheeks were burning at his touch.

"I hope that you get the family that you deserve," Kili said softly.

"Thank you." I very slowly pulled my hand away from his, trying to remind myself that this wasn't real. I couldn't like a figment of my imagination. "It's going to be so strange going home after all of this," I admitted.

"Home isn't always necessarily where you're from. You find it when you're least expecting it. Sometimes it takes a long time to realize it. One day it just hits you. You're home," Kili said slowly.

There was something pointed in his gaze. I laughed and ran a hand through my slightly curly hair. "And here I was thinking that I was the smartest person here," I teased.

"I think you're still right," Kili said brightly.

"Well you are older than me... so..." I trailed off.

"I'm much older than you," Kili pointed out.

"You look like you're barely six or seven years older than me," I snapped.

"Maybe for a mortal man," Kili said.

"Okay... How old are you, then?" I asked.

"Seventy-six," Kili said.

My gaze had been down at the grass. But the moment that he said that, my head whipped up towards him. I knew that he was older, but I had thought that he was maybe forty. Not almost eighty! Something about the situation was hysterical. So I leaned back against Kili's shoulder and started howling with laughter. He was staring down at me curiously. I kept trying to calm myself down and sober up, but for some reason I couldn't.

After a few moments of staring at me like I had lost my mind, the corners of Kili's lips turned upwards and he started laughing, too. His head dropped down against mine as we both tried - and deeply failed - to stop laughing and try and be serious. It was one of those moments where it was impossible to calm down, even though what had happened wasn't that funny. The situation was funny though, considering how old he was compared to me, even though we were from two very different species.

Once we finally managed to sober up and pull apart, Kili grinned down at me. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"You're almost the same age as my grandfather. Oh... you're an old man!" I cried, cracking up again.

Kili started laughing as he shoved me. "And you're barely more than a child," he pointed out.

"I'm an adult in my own race!" I argued.

"You're a child in mine," Kili teased.

"You're a senior citizen in mine," I shot back.

The two of us stared at each other before a smile started tugging at our lips again. Just a moment later we started laughing again. I realized that it had been a long time since I had laughed like that. With anyone. Particularly not someone whom I had just met and suddenly felt so comfortable with. I couldn't help but to lean back against Kili's shoulder. When I finally managed to calm down again, I sat back upright and realized that he was watching me curiously.

"You're very strange, Leah Ambrose," Kili said.

"So I've heard. You are... not that strange, which is annoying," I said irritably. He grinned at me as we went back to watching the stars. "That song earlier. The one that you all were singing. It's beautiful."

"Misty Mountains Cold. That's what it's called," Kili said.

It was very hard not to tell him that I knew that. "That's your home. You're going to get it back," I said softly.

"I hope so," Kili muttered.

"Well I'll do anything that I can to help you get it back," I said determinedly.

"Thank you, Leah," Kili said softly.

"You're welcome, Kili." We sat together for a few moments before I turned back to him, smiling again. "I do like that you all sing so much," I said.

"Are you a singer?" Kili asked.

"Sometimes. But I don't usually sing in public," I said.

"Can only one person be counted as public?" Kili asked.

Obviously he was asking me if I would sing for him. I laughed softly and shook my head. "Yes. I think it is," I said.

"Not even one song?" Kili pouted.

For whatever reason, I was nervous for him to hear me sing. But, to be fair, I had already heard him sing. Although it had been in a big group. "Tell you what. In exchange for your archery lessons, I'll sing you a song. Each lesson, I'll figure out something to sing for you," I said after a beat.

Kili looked at me for a moment before nodding. "I think that we can make that deal. So do I get one for earlier?" Kili asked brightly.

"No," I said quickly.

"Why not?" Kili asked.

"Because that was before we made our deal," I said.

There was no way that he was getting that song until he actually gave me a full archery lesson. Not making just one shot. We both laughed again as the front door to Bilbo's home opened again. I wasn't sure who I was expecting it to be, but I still found that I was glancing back nervously. It was Thorin. He was staring right at us. I blushed softly at the little glare that he was giving me. I suddenly realized just how close the two of us were sitting to each other.

"Kili. Give me a moment with Miss Ambrose," Thorin said.

It was clear that it was an order. "Of course," Kili said.

Before he could get up, I grabbed the edge of his sleeve. "If he kills me while we're out here, I'm blaming you," I whispered.

Kili laughed softly with me as he nodded and walked off. I released his sleeve before letting my hand fall back onto the grass. He headed straight back into Bilbo's house as I looked back to discreetly watch the uncle and nephew pair. I felt a little sick with myself at the thought of being alone with Thorin. As Kili headed back towards him, I noticed that Thorin was giving Kili a long look. But he didn't say anything to him other than a very brief comment in Khuzdul. Of course. He knew that I was eavesdropping.

Thorin stalked over to me before taking a seat at my side. For some reason, it surprised me that he had actually seated himself. "That was quite the song that you all sang," I commented after a long silence.

"It is called -"

"Misty Mountains Cold," I interrupted awkwardly. "Kili told me."

"Gandalf says that you are just staying with us for a brief while," Thorin said.

I knew that he was searching for something. I was definitely surprised that Gandalf had said something about my situation. "Well I'm not quite sure. There are things that I need to think about. Answers that I need to get. I'm not sure. I'll think about staying," I said awkwardly. "Honestly, would you even want me here the entire time?"

"If you prove yourself useful," Thorin said.

I scoffed at him. "How calculating," I commented.

"Pardon?" Thorin asked, looking surprised.

"Calculating," I repeated, trying to match Thorin's glare. "Only wanting someone around if they prove themselves useful. I overheard you speaking with Balin. You were saying that you would take each one of these dwarves over an army because they came when called. I came, too. Why not me?"

"You are not a dwarf," Thorin said.

"Yet here I am, willing to help. Something that most of your own kin wouldn't do," I pointed out.

Thorin scowled again. "Precisely why I am allowing you to accompany us," Thorin finally admitted.

"I somehow think that Gandalf would have found a way for me to accompany you. He tends to ignore whatever others want," I said.

Thorin gave another bitter scowl. "So I've noticed." We sat in silence for a little while longer. I had been a little nervous with Kili, but I was terrified to be with Thorin. "Balin tells me that you are from Rohan," Thorin eventually said.

"Yes," I said slowly.

"I traveled to Rohan when I was younger," Thorin said.

Uh-oh. "Oh? Did you like it?" I asked, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

"I didn't hear any accents quite like yours," Thorin said.

Damn me! I had been hoping that none of the dwarves had ever been there. Come up with an excuse, damn it. "Well I've been traveling since I was young. Only staying in places for so long before moving on. I'm sure that my accent has become somewhat... garbled," I explained awkwardly.

Thorin gave me a long look before slowly nodded. "Yes. Of course," he said, obviously disbelievingly.

Change the subject, Leah. "The dwarves seem excited to get underway," I said.

"It will be a long journey. The sooner that we can get on our way, the sooner that we will arrive at Erebor," Thorin explained.

"Are you excited?" I asked.

Obviously that surprised him. Thorin turned to me and nodded slowly. "In my own way. Are you?" he asked.

"Surprisingly... yes. I am," I said honestly.

Thorin nodded and rose to his feet. "Come. Get some rest. We'll be leaving at first light," he said.

"All right," I muttered.

It was another order, but this time it wasn't nasty. Thorin stood up from the grass and offered me his hand. I was somewhat surprised that he did. I was half-expecting that he was going to drop me and let me go sprawling back into the grass. He pulled me back to my feet before allowing me to walk ahead of him back into Bilbo's home. So I walked back into the home and glanced around for somewhere to sleep for the night. Not the floor. I would have to get used to that eventually.

For tonight I could use somewhere comfortable. I didn't want to use one of Bilbo's bedrooms without his permission and I figured that he was already asleep. I saw that one of the armchairs in front of the fire had been left open. I could only imagine that it had been set aside for me, seeing that many of the dwarves were sleeping on the floor. So I curled up into the leather chair and leaned back, closing my eyes. I was trying to get to sleep as soon as possible, but I was having a hard time actually getting there.

As I glanced up I saw that a few of the dwarves were still awake. Some of the older ones were trying to drift off but most of the younger ones were still awake. Not that I was surprised. Normally I would have wanted to be awake too. But right now I wanted to sleep so I could wake up and see if this really was a dream or not. Fili and Kili were standing back against the door frame near me, speaking softly with each other. They were chuckling and speaking in what sounded like Khuzdul.

If only they would all speak in English. I wanted to eavesdrop. Apparently realizing that someone was watching them, they both glanced over at me. I smiled at them and got two sweet smiles in return as I slipped down into the chair and closed my eyes. In the morning, I would finally know the truth. And I already knew my truth... I wanted to be here.


	5. Chapter Five

The sun streaming through the windows woke me up the next morning. But I didn't open my eyes automatically. Not like usual. Not when I would usually panic and turn off my alarm before jumping out of bed and darting to the car to make it to my class on time. Today I moved much slower than I usually would have. Because I knew that I was about to discover the truth. Where was I? I could hear the shuffling of feet around me and I could hear muffled voices.

It was enough to make my heart jump into my throat. It wasn't my home. I knew that it wasn't my home. I never heard anyone in the morning. Harley would have already been at school, as the high school that she went to started just a little bit after seven in the morning and my classes didn't start until nine. It wouldn't have been my parents either. They would have already been at their own workplaces for at least an hour. No. There was only one place that I could be.

To my absolute surprise, I was actually still in Bag End. I knew that I was. The voices just a few feet away from me carried distinct British, Scottish, and Irish accents. There was no one that lived near me with any of those. There was no doubt. I was still in Bag End. I could tell from the leather chair that I was curled in. It was the same that I was in last night. Was this really not a dream? Was I really actually in the events of The Hobbit? I had to be. It was the only thing that made sense. That didn't even make sense.

The thought that I was actually in Middle Earth and had actually landed myself in the middle of the events of The Hobbit both excited and terrified me. On one side, I was excited that I was actually going to get to go on the journey to Erebor. It would be more interesting than the monotonous life of a college student. But I was also terrified that I was really going to have to go through all of the motions on their perilous journey. And... Could I die?

Desperate to think about something other than my possible death, I thought about something else. The one thought that had finally dawned on me. This was all real. It was not a drug-induced dream. I had really actually managed to fall into the world of The Hobbit. I was going to have to live with all of this. I was not getting back home. Not until, at least, we made it to Rivendell and I could speak with Lord Elrond to get me back home. If I survive the troll and Orc attack. But, at that point, would I want to go home?

Suddenly a hand fell on my shoulder. My eyes had been closed so I wasn't expecting someone to touch me. I jerked up slightly in my place. Even though I knew that people were walking all around me, I was surprised that someone woke me up. I almost would have thought that they would leave me here. I glanced up and saw that Balin - who looked very startled at my reaction - was standing above me. I smiled nervously, feeling a little guilty for scaring him.

"Good morning," I said weakly.

"Good morning, my dear. We'll be leaving shortly. Come and get ready," Balin said.

"All right. Thank you," I said.

He moved away from me and I started to push myself out of the chair. But just as I started to move, I realized that something had been draped over me in the middle of the night. I gently pushed it off of me to realize that it was a cloak. The last thing that I remembered was curling up on the chair. I had never put a cloak on myself or anything like that. I held it up and raised a brow. It wasn't mine. It was the wrong color, much heavier, and a little bit too large. Whose was it, then?

"This isn't mine," I muttered, holding up the cloak.

"I believe that is Master Kili's," Gandalf said, appearing suddenly at my side.

Glancing up, I nodded at him. That was when I realized that Gandalf was smiling slightly as he puffed on his pipe. "What are you grinning about, old man?" I snapped.

Gandalf shook his head, still grinning at me. "Nothing, my dear," he said, waving me off.

"Who put this on me?" I asked very dumbly to no one in particular.

"The owner, I believe," Gandalf said.

"Oh... Well... That was sweet," I muttered awkwardly. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Gandalf was still smiling at me. "Stop smiling, jackass."

"Hurry along, my dear. It's almost time to leave," Gandalf said.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered irritably.

In all honesty, I never had been much of a morning person. Slowly I got completely up out of the chair and draped the cloak over my arm, going to look for Kili to give him his cloak back. I blushed softly as I realized that he must have spotted me at some point in the night and thought that I looked cold. That only made my blush increase, of course, which just irritated me even more. He was just being gentlemanly. Something that I didn't get much - at all, really - back home.

Just get over it, Leah. It's just a cloak. There was nothing for me to get excited or embarrassed over. It was something that any reasonably kind man would have done for a lady. But for just a moment I wished that I lived back in the times where actions like that were normal. I guess I do live there now. The whole thing was no big deal. I just had to keep telling myself that. I just forgot to bunch of my own cloak or blanket over me to cover myself up with. Kili was just being nice. Nothing else.

But in the back of my mind, something else occurred to me. Something that reminded me that this wasn't really my life. Because I had suddenly realized what a movie moment this was. Kili gave me his cloak while I slept because I looked cold. Something that had always seemed so romantic to me before every time that I saw it on television or in a movie. But now I realized that it was just an act of kindness from a simpler time. Men were sweeter and had more morals than they did back in my own time.

"Morning," a voice called from behind me.

I jumped backwards and turned to see Kili grinning at me. He looked wide awake. "Oh!" I gasped, placing a hand on my chest. "You scared me."

"My apologies. Tea?" Kili offered.

"You don't happen to have coffee, do you?" I asked.

Caffeine... I needed caffeine to survive in the morning. "Coffee?" Kili asked, looking confused.

Did they not have coffee in Middle Earth? That's unfortunate. "It's... a drink from back in Rohan. Kind of like tea. A little stronger and darker." I stopped speaking when I realized that it wouldn't mean anything to him. "Never mind, I don't know why I'm telling you that. Tea would be lovely," I said sweetly.

"Here you are," Dori said, appearing from behind me.

"Thank you." I took the cup from Dori and turned back to Kili. "And thank you," I added.

Kili's eyebrow quirked. "Pardon?" he asked.

"This is yours. Isn't it?" I asked, handing over his cloak.

Now he clearly understood. "Ah. Yes, it is," Kili said, taking the cloak back.

"How did it end up on me?" I asked.

"You fell asleep in the armchair last night. I was coming to settle in when I saw that you were shivering. I didn't see any blankets that were yours, so I thought of the next best thing," Kili explained.

A furious blush settled on my cheeks. If only every boy back home were like you. "Well it was much appreciated. It's very comfortable, your cloak," I teased.

And it really was. "I'd say that you can have it, but I'm quite attached," Kili said.

"How about I wrestle you for it?" I offered.

"I'm not going to fight a lady," Kili said.

"Too chicken?" I teased.

Kili's face knitted into one of confusion. It's going to be really hard to remember that we don't have the same slang. "Chicken?" he repeated.

"It means scared," I explained.

"Rohan sounds like quite a strange place," Kili said, laughing.

"Maybe I'm just a strange person," I said.

The two of us exchanged a small smile as Fili appeared at his brother's side. "Breakfast?" Fili offered me.

"Absolutely. I'm starving," I said excitedly.

Back home I almost never had breakfast. Mostly because I woke up at the last second to make it to class on time. Usually I just poured myself the coffee that my parents would leave behind for me and dart out the door. If I was lucky, I might get a chance to get myself some cereal or snag a breakfast bar. With the dwarves, they would have made a full scale meal. Fili and Kili exchanged a strange look with each other and I raised my eyebrows. I didn't understand what that look was for.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"We love a woman with an appetite," Fili said with a flirtatious grin.

"Shut up," I scoffed.

The three of us exchanged another funny look before bursting into laughter. I stumbled into the kitchen with them on either side of me and smiled at the sight of the large company. Save Bilbo, who would still be asleep. The first thing that I noticed was that the dwarves were being much more subdued this morning than they were last night. There was something about it that made me smile. I was just the slightest bit happy that they were at least minding waking Bilbo up this early.

As I walked into the kitchen, I rolled my eyes. It didn't look like it had been cleaned that much. It was still a little bit of a disaster from the night before. I just hoped that they would clean it up a little bit before we left. I couldn't imagine Bilbo leaving it like this for a year. At least some of the dishes were put away and they all seemed to have been scrubbed clean. That still didn't change the fact that they had stripped Bilbo's pantry clean, but it did make up for some of it. I should have warned Bilbo to get more food.

The dwarves were already in full swing with the food and breakfast. Plates were set out all over the table. I laughed at the sight of it. Even though there were fifteen of us, it seemed like enough food to supply a village. I seated myself in between Fili and Kili as we started breakfast. I piled some eggs, bacon, sausage, and bread onto my plate. A traditional English breakfast. My stomach was rumbling as I dug into it. I hadn't realized just how hungry I was. I had been a little too freaked out to eat last night.

The entire meal was surprisingly good. I complimented Bombur on his cooking skills about halfway through the meal and received a smile so wide that I would have thought that I had told him that he had just won the lottery. Not that he knew what that was. At least he was another dwarf that seemed to like me. It would take some time to work on most of the older dwarves, save Bofur, who did seem to like me. We had been eating for about a quarter of an hour when I spoke up again.

"Where is our first stop?" I asked softly.

"We'll be stopping at The Green Dragon Inn tonight," Fili explained.

"Where is that?" I asked bashfully.

"The edge of The Shire," Kili said.

My eyebrows raised. Was the Shire really that big? I had always thought that it was supposed to be reasonably small. "It's going to take all day to get there?" I asked foolishly.

The company started to chuckle. "It's going to be a slow and long journey to Erebor," Kili said gently.

"I've never been away from home for this long at once," I muttered.

"First time out, lassie?" Bofur asked.

"I've been on some shorter trips away from home, but no huge ones. Not like this. I think the longest that I've been away from home was maybe... two weeks?" I more asked than said.

Whenever I had gone out on short trips before I had never really thought about how long I would be gone. That one long trip had been for an MMA fight up in Canada one summer. It had been a national level tournament. I didn't dare bother telling the dwarves that my parents and sister were with me when I had gone. Mostly because I was only sixteen at the time. It would likely make me sound even more childish. They were already laughing at the short span of time that had been my longest outing up until now.

"You are aware how long this journey will take, my dear?" Balin asked curiously.

"Yes. I'm aware. A little over a year," I said stiffly.

"Your family are going to be okay with you being gone this long?" Balin asked.

Something snapped in me. "Believe it or not, I'm an adult in my own society. It's not really up to them to decide where I go or how long I'm going for. They'll get over it," I said, much nastier than I had meant.

Obviously it surprised the dwarves. A number of them snapped their heads up to stare at me. "Interesting take on things," Balin said calmly.

Calming down slightly, I took a few sips of my tea. "I love my family to death, but for once I want to do something for myself. This is what I want to do," I said.

"Eat quickly. We'll be leaving shortly," Thorin said, cutting over the tense conversation.

It was probably a good idea. The last thing that I needed was to be getting into any fights with the people who would have to serve as my away family over the next year or so. I would have to live with them. Even more important, I would have to learn to fight with them. I would have to rely on them to protect me with their own lives and vice versa. That meant that I would have to learn to get along with all of them, even those who didn't like me that much.

So we lapsed into a reasonably tense silence. I could imagine that they weren't used to women speaking like that to them. They were still men in a male-dominant society. But I would not lay down and take it. I was just as brash - if not more so - than them. So I quietly ate my breakfast. I found myself a little cranky without having my coffee. I was sure that it was going to be hard to get used to not having coffee. The only good thing was that they did have tea. But it wasn't nearly as good.

Maybe if I got stuck here forever, I would invent it. As I finished eating - unable to take another bite - I offered it to Fili and Kili. They gladly took the remnants of the meal. Being in between them was a place of comfort, as funny as that was. We barely knew each other. But there was something reassuring about being in between them, despite knowing how their stories ended. And it was rather strange, considering that they were some of the reasons that had landed me here.

Trying to make up for my brief and not-so-nice conversation with Balin earlier, I started chatting with some of the other dwarves at the breakfast table. I gave Bombur a few more compliments on his preparation of the breakfast and compliments on his cooking. I was sure that I had definitely won him over that. I even made it a point to apologize to Balin, telling him that I was determined to prove myself. Apparently he had found my standing up for myself rather endearing.

We were about to finish the meal when something dawned on me. "I just realized something... How am I supposed to get around? I know that you all have horses and ponies. What about me?" I asked.

"We have two spare ponies, lassie. You can take either Whiskers or Misty," Bofur offered.

"Which one is which?" I asked.

"Give her Misty," Fili and Kili said together.

My head whipped towards them. They were both grinning. That didn't bode well for me. "Why do I feel like you two gave me the pony that is going to buck me off into the river?" I asked irritably.

"My dear, Leah -" Fili started.

"We would never do that," Kili finished.

"Sure," I said disbelievingly.

The two of them exchanged another small grin. "Misty is a little younger and stronger," Fili said.

"I still don't trust the two of you," I said.

"You'll learn to," Kili said, grinning.

My eyes narrowed at them again. "You see?" I said suddenly. They both gave me dumbfounded looks. "It's that smile right there. That's exactly the reason that I don't trust you."

"My smile?" Kili asked confusedly.

"There's something... teasing about it. Something that tells me that if I look away, I'm going to end up with a note saying 'kick me' on my back," I said, forgetting that my words would make no sense to him.

Kili gave me a very funny look. "You are -"

"Strange?" I interrupted.

"Yes. But that is a good thing," Kili said sweetly.

Thankfully no one else was looking at us. They were all too enamored with finishing their breakfast. I blushed madly the longer that I looked at Kili before finally breaking the stare. His body was shaking slightly and I rolled my eyes. It was because he was laughing at me. That was extremely embarrassing. Just to know that he knew that he affected me. Hopefully he wouldn't realize that it was because I had a little crush. Hopefully he would think that I was just easily embarrassed.

As the breakfast wound down, I wrapped my cold fingers around the warm mug of tea and slowly drained it. Now I realized that a few people were watching me. They weren't ignoring the two of us as I had thought earlier. It turned out that a number of the dwarves were actually watching the two of us. I felt very awkward. I couldn't help but to think that their quiet conversations were about Kili and me, judging by the looks that we were getting. Not that there was anything to talk about.

But that couldn't be right. They knew that the two of us were just chatting away because we got along. I was just overreacting. They weren't gossiping teenagers. They were fully grown men. Although I did notice that a few of them were staring at me when I woke up earlier. Could they have noticed that I was sleeping under his cloak? Did that fact even matter? It was just something chivalrous that he had done. Something that I had never experienced before.

Trying to get my mind off of the other dwarves, I glanced back at Kili. "Do I get an archery lesson tonight?" I asked softly.

"You didn't think that you would be getting out of it, did you?" Kili teased.

"I wouldn't have wanted to," I said honestly.

"How about when we stop?" Kili offered.

"Perfect," I said brightly.

"I think that I would like to see just how talented of a wrestler you are," Fili said, leaning into the conversation.

Now all of the dwarves were listening. I shot Fili a little scowl before shaking my head slowly. "Oh... I'm not sure that you really want that," I said flippantly.

"Now why not, lassie?" Dwalin asked. I was surprised that he was speaking to me without prompt. "I thought that you said that you were quite good."

"I am. I wouldn't want to embarrass any of you," I said quickly.

The moment that I said it, I wished that I could have taken it back. You're not back home. You can't say things like that anymore. But, to my surprise, there was some scattered laughter. It wasn't honest. Clearly none of them believed me. Not that I was expecting any of them to believe me. It didn't bother me. It hadn't bothered me back home and it didn't bother me here. I would be able to prove them wrong if they really wanted to wrestle with me. So I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back.

"If you're really that determined to see it... fine. Pick someone," I said easily.

"Really, lass?" Bofur asked carefully.

"Really. Take your pick," I said.

The table was silent for a moment. No one wanted to fight a woman. "I'll do it," Fili finally said.

"You're so sure?" I teased.

"Scared?" Fili shot back.

"For you," I said without missing a beat.

"Confident," Fili commented.

"It's not misplaced," I said honestly.

"What do I get when I win?" Fili asked.

My eyebrow quirked. What did I want? Since I was going to be the winner. "I think what you mean is when I win. You get to pay for our night in one of the taverns," I said brightly.

Fili grinned. "Deal."

The two of us shook hands tightly. The moment that we did, I started laughing softly. He had no idea that I would be able to beat him. Because he wasn't expecting me to know how to fight like I did. As we went back to our drinks, I noticed that the other dwarves were laughing, too. They thought that I had just positioned myself for a loss. But I was going to have a good time showing them up. My only problem would be that Fili was physically stronger than me. But I had faced that issue numerous times.

"Do you really think that you can beat him?" Ori asked quietly.

"There's not a doubt in my mind. I've taken down men twice Fili's size," I said honestly.

"Truly?" Balin asked.

"Yes. In Rohan, we don't judge based on gender or appearance. Strictly on performance," I said, which was very true back in the gym. "I do hope that you can all follow suit."

Suddenly Bifur started saying something in Khuzdul. Bofur listened for a moment before turning to look at me. "He says that we will once he sees what you can do," Bofur explained.

"Of course," I said slowly.

"Well I'll put down money that Leah will win," Kili said suddenly.

My head whipped over towards him. "Really?" I asked slowly.

"Kili!" Fili shouted, looking aghast.

That was enough to make the rest of the dwarves start laughing. "No one is that confident without having some faith that they genuinely can win," Kili reasoned.

"I somehow think that you're the only dwarf that will vote in my favor," I said.

The rest of them nodded, not trying to save my feelings. "I think that I will root for Miss Ambrose as well," Gandalf said suddenly.

"Pardon us, but I believe that the two of you are alone in that bet," Balin said.

Just what I was thinking. "That's okay. I like being the underdog," I said.

"Underdog?" Nori asked.

They didn't even know what underdog meant? This might be a little harder than I was expecting. "It's a word that we use back in Rohan. It means... a competitor thought to have little chance of winning a fight or contest," I explained.

"Apt wording," Gloin said.

Turning to look back at Fili, I narrowed my eyes playfully. "I don't care what they say. You're going down," I teased.

"I'll take it easy on you, my lady," Fili said.

"I will not be making you the same promise," I said.

"Clean yourselves up. We're leaving shortly," Thorin said shortly.

Obviously he was sick of the rest of us having fun and messing with each other. Of course, I knew that he wanted to get going. He wanted to go home. And I really couldn't honestly blame him for that. Some part of me wanted to go home, too. But some other part of me wanted to be here. Because I kind of felt like I was at home here. Slowly the dwarves started to bring in their plates and head out to get ready for the long journey ahead.

"Does he ever smile?" I whispered to Kili, once Thorin had left.

"He'll smile if you lose," Kili said.

"So he won't be smiling anytime soon, then," I said brightly.

"We'll see," Kili said.

"You bet for me!" I yelled.

"So don't lose," Kili whispered.

He started to get up from the table, not before leaning down in front of me and giving a playful wink. I blushed softly and sat back against the table for a moment. If only he knew exactly how much I liked that wink. But the next time that he did it, I was going to slap him. I rolled my eyes at myself and got up from the table, heading back into the main hallway. I grabbed my things from the floor before walking to the back of Bilbo's home and striding into one of the spare bathrooms.

As I walked into the bathroom, I closed the door and bolted it behind me. I headed straight over to the mirror and gazed in. I looked just as I always did. I looked completely normal. I looked just the way that I had when I left Florida. But I knew that I would only look like this for so much longer. I knew that living out in the woods for a year would do something to me. I would start looking different in a matter of days. Like someone who survived off the land.

Slowly I started to peel off the clothes that I had worn yesterday and gone to sleep in. I would have to get used to not changing every day. I couldn't without a washing machine and dryer on hand. As I started putting on something that would be suitable for traveling, I realized that my muscles were slightly sore from a lack of use. Even just a day without training was slowly exhausting me. I would just have to get used to training in a completely different way.

It wasn't like I wouldn't be physically active anymore. In fact, I would likely be even more physically active than I had been back home. Things would just be different here in Middle Earth. I would be eating different food that would likely have more meat and healthy fat. My thigh muscles would get stronger from constant riding. I wouldn't be fighting nearly as much, and when I did it would be a different kind, but I would be running and walking a lot more than I normally did.

Over the next few months, I would also be getting a lot of practice with archery. Kili had ensured that I would be practicing every night and I had a feeling that Thorin would kill me himself if he thought that I was slacking off and not taking this seriously. But archery practice would be fun. I still wanted to get one of the dwarves to teach me knife throwing and sword fighting. Just so that I could do something else. Maybe I could get Dwalin or Fili to help me out.

Perhaps there was even a chance that I would be able to harass one of them to wrestle with me from time to time. It would be fun and I would be able to learn how to fight the people in Middle Earth, who would fight much differently than the people back home. I knew that showing up Fili later would start to make them take me just a little more seriously, since they certainly didn't right now. One win would hopefully change that.

Trying to push back those thoughts from my head, I started to change into my new clothes. It would take some practice to know what was the most comfortable for riding. I pulled on one of the long black blouses and a pair of brown trousers. Over the top of the black shirt, I pulled on the brown corset. Once I had all of my normal clothes, I pulled my black boots back on. I hung the two weapons belts from my hips and slipped the daggers into them. I also threw on the lightweight black cloak to protect from the sun.

My hair was slightly kinked up from the wind and sleeping without a hairbrush. I decided quickly that I wanted to do something else with it. Something to make me look a little bit more like the dwarves. I took my long bangs and the sides of my hair and braided those sections back into a large French braid back from my forehead over the crown of my head all the way down. It left the rest of my hair to fall in slight waves over my shoulders and down my back.

It reminded me of the way that an old-time warrior woman would have worn it. Maybe a Viking or something like that. I gathered my things back in my arms and headed back out into the dining room. I noticed a few dwarves immediately glance over at me. I blushed softly at their gazes. They weren't totally loving, but maybe they were a little something like approving. I noticed that Gandalf was giving me a bright smile. He knew that I was trying desperately to fit in with them.

Just a moment later I caught Thorin's eye. He definitely didn't look as thrilled to see me as the rest of the dwarves did. And they didn't look very thrilled to see me either. Thorin scowled at me for a moment before finally giving a nod. He looked away as Fili and Kili walked up to me a moment later. Fili gave me a playful wink and I rolled my eyes. Kili gave me the same wink and my stomach gave a slight flutter. I forced myself to roll my eyes again.

"Don't you look lovely?" Fili teased.

"Flattery will not stop me from beating you later," I said.

Fili gave me something akin to a little pout. "You won't even think to take it easy on me?" he asked.

"No. Because I wouldn't want you doing that to me," I said honestly.

"You look a bit like a dwarf," Kili commented as we walked into the kitchen.

Stopping short, it almost caused Kili to walk straight into me. I turned back with a narrowed gaze. "That was kind of the point. And I really hope that wasn't meant as an insult," I said slowly.

"Anything but," Kili said.

There was a soft blush on my face as I turned back to the kitchen, realizing that all of the dwarves were scrubbing the dishes and placing them back in the cabinets. "Are you all actually cleaning up?" I asked.

"You didn't think that we were complete animals?" Kili teased.

"Well you did eat all of Bilbo's food without replacing any of it," I pointed out.

"But we never leave a mess," Fili said, appearing back behind me.

"I suppose that counts for something." As they continued to move around, I realized that it was strangely quiet. "What? No song?" I asked teasingly.

"How about you come up with one, lassie?" Bofur offered.

Well that backfired. "Oh, no. I like singing but I'm not much for... singing in public," I muttered dumbly.

"Come on, then," Kili said excitedly.

"You are not helping," I snapped.

"Come on, Leah!" Fili goaded.

"I'm going to punch you as hard as I can," I muttered.

For a moment I thought that the dwarves would let it drop. But they didn't. They merely continuously tried to harass me about it. So I shushed them and thought back on anything that I could use. But I couldn't come up with anything on the spot. That was not one of my gifts. I had never been one for poetry or song-writing. I liked singing things that people had already written. That was why I had always liked karaoke. Of course, only when it was in front of people that I already knew.

Suddenly I remembered something that would work perfectly right now. It wasn't long but it was enough to get them to shut up for a little while. I hoped, at least. There was the scene in the Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They were cleaning up the home. It was perfectly appropriate for what was happening right now. It was done in the same old-time style that the dwarves spoke and sang in right now. The dwarves would never know that I stole it from a film. So I cleared my throat and sang.

"Just whistle while you work  
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place  
So hum a merry tune  
It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace

And as you sweep the room  
Imagine that the broom is someone that you love  
And soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune  
When hearts are high the time will fly so whistle while you work."

The moment that I finished the song, I noticed that some of the dwarves had been dancing around, just the way that they were when they had been singing about what Bilbo hated. The dwarves were once again tossing around the plates and dishes for each other to catch. I stood back and let them have their fun. They were sweeping the floor free of all of the mud and dirt that they had tracked in and placing everything back where it came from. The only reminder that we had ever been here was the emptied pantry.

While I had been singing, Nori had started piping along to the tune softly. He was dancing up on the table, running all about the living room and dining room. It was enough to make me softly and almost ruin my tune. They all laughed softly as I finished the tune and took a little bow. I appreciated the small round of applause that I was getting. As I straightened back up, I noticed that Gandalf was placing a copy of the contract up on Bilbo's fireplace mantle.

"That was good, lassie!" Bofur cried excitedly. I smiled softly at him. I'm sure that Walt Disney appreciates that. Bifur growled something in Khuzdul. "He says that it was too short."

Giggling softly, I nodded at Bifur. "Thank you, Bifur. I'll work on getting more of it." Then I turned back to Kili. "That counts for your song today," I snapped.

"How is that fair?" Kili asked.

"Life's not fair. Get used to it," I said.

"No, no. I want another song. A full song," Kili argued.

"That wasn't part of the deal."

"Come on, Leah."

"We'll see how good you are at teaching."

Kili smiled. "Perhaps I should have paid a little more attention to Dwalin's lessons back in the Blue Mountains," he said.

"Bad student?" I asked curiously.

"Not the best," Kili admitted.

The thought made me smile. At least I wasn't the only bad student here. "I used to sleep through all of my lessons. I thought that my teachers would kill me. It used to make them so mad that they could wake me up from a nap and I would still be able to answer their questions," I explained.

"Troublemaker, eh?" Fili asked.

"Just a little bit," I admitted.

"You'll fit in just fine," Fili reassured me.

"Time to leave. Pack your things," Thorin called from the hallway.

Just the second that we all started having fun... But I nodded anyways and gathered up the rest of my things, tossing my bow and arrow quiver onto my back. On the way to the door, I briefly glanced back at the closed door to Bilbo's bedroom. I was halfway tempted to go and wake him up, but I knew that he would join us on our journey soon enough. So I sighed and headed for the front door. Just before I made it there, I remembered something.

"Ori!" I called to the youngest dwarf.

"Yes?"

"Can I borrow a piece of parchment for a moment?" I asked.

Ori looked a little bit surprised, but he nodded anyways. "Certainly. What for, if I might ask?"

"I'm going to leave something for Bilbo," I explained.

"Our burglar will not be joining us. It is a waste of time," Thorin butt in.

"Just in case you're wrong, then," I said confidently.

"I have left Mr. Baggins a copy of the contract as well," Gandalf said.

Thorin was scowling at the wizard, but I sent him a little smile. He knew as well as I did that Bilbo was going to come and join us. Of course, I only knew because I had seen the movie. I walked over to the mantle and left Bilbo a little note. If it worked for Cinna Katniss, it will work for Bilbo and me. So I carefully scrawled out, 'I'm still betting on you' on the parchment. I placed a paperweight over the note and the contract and smiled. Maybe he would arrive a little earlier now.

"Okay. I'm ready," I called, darting back to the hallway.

Obviously Thorin was not thrilled with having to wait even thirty seconds for me to get myself ready. He was still scowling at me as I ran back up to the rest of the company. Everyone gathered their things and got ready to start the journey. It was only about three minutes before we all gathered our things together and left the Shire. As I walked out into the yard to get ready to leave, I found myself a little bit nervous. Rightly so, since there were a number of things to be afraid of right now.

Plus there was the fact that this might be the last time that I would ever see this place. Whether it was from going back home, staying in Erebor, or my death, I couldn't be sure. So I turned back and spent a long time just looking at the home. The flowers that were scattered all throughout the garden, the bright green grass, and the half-underground hobbit-holes. The only reason that I finally tore my gaze away from Bilbo's home was because Balin was pointing me to the new horse that I would be using.

Misty. She was adorable. It was a smaller pony. Just barely larger than the ones that most of the dwarves were using. A little too big to be a real pony but too small to be a horse. The perfect size. I patted her on the nose and looked her over. The mare had a beautiful deep coal coat. She was adorable. She also had small white patches on her feet. Kili walked over and gave me a step up onto Misty. I left my pack and weapons on my back. I had nothing else to leave with the pony that was carrying the supplies.

It was a little awkward to arrange myself on Misty at first. It had been a long time since I had been on the back of a horse before. And I had only ever ridden them at the state fairs and things like that. This was different. Just as Kili walked off to his own pony, he tossed something at me. I caught the object just before it could hit the ground. A small grin appeared on my face when I saw that it was the apple that I had managed to shoot down last night. I decided to take it as a good sign.

As a large group, we finally managed to get underway on our journey. It was slow-moving at first, heading down the winding hills of the Shire. I found myself getting very nervous. This was not a dream. This was all real. Some part of it was relieving - as I was really liking it here - but another part of me was terrified for what was to come. I was really in Middle Earth and we were really on our way to kill Smaug and take back Erebor. I would really have to fight off Azog and Bolg.

Despite the fact that it was months away, it was lingering on my mind. Because I couldn't even imagine how this was all going to go down. I knew exactly how it would happen - seeing as I had seen the movies before - but that didn't change the fact that I was incredibly nervous. Especially each time that I would glance over and exchange a smile with Fili and Kili. The only thing that I could hope was that, by being close to them, it would eventually help me save them.

Riding in between Fili and Kili, I listened to them as they told me where we were going and what we were passing. I didn't know much about the geography of Middle Earth, so I appreciated having my own little walking maps with me. We traveled down the lane out of the Shire, past the great Mill (which was, as expected, a windmill), across The Water (a two hundred mile long river that ran into the Brandywine River), and then on for a mile or so more. We arrived in Bywater just on the stroke of eleven.

It felt like we had already been traveling for days. It was a little strange. Not even a day had passed and I was already sick of riding. It would take some time to get used to this kind of lifestyle. But only about half an hour - maybe an hour - had passed since we had left Bilbo's home. I knew that he would be coming up soon enough. He ran to catch up with the company in the movie. I did recall that he didn't take that long to catch up to them. Which meant that they would start making the bets soon.

At the front of the company, Thorin was riding next to Gandalf. "I do not know why you left him the contract. He will not be joining us," Thorin argued, referring to Bilbo.

"Don't be so sure, Thorin Oakenshield," Gandalf advised.

"Why are you so convinced that he won't join us? I did," I commented.

Thorin turned back and sent me another one of his favorite glares. "Mr. Baggins stayed behind for a reason," Thorin growled.

"I bet that he'll show up," I said.

"You honestly think that he is going to come and join us?" Kili asked.

"I do," I said.

"Enough to bet money on it?" Kili asked teasingly.

The other dwarves started to snicker. I rolled my eyes at them. "I think that you dwarves have a gambling problem." Some of the dwarves started laughing. "You know what? Yes. I am willing to bet on it," I said confidently, knowing that I would win the bet.

"Five silver coins that your hobbit does not show up," Kili said.

"Fine. Five silver coins says that he does," I agreed.

"Anyone else?" Kili asked loudly.

Bifur said something in Khuzdul from his own pony. As usual, Bofur was the one to translate it. "He's against your hobbit. So am I, lassie. Sorry to say," Bofur said guiltily.

"I vote no," Dori said immediately.

"Absolutely not," Bombur said.

"We will not be seeing our hobbit again," Gloin agreed.

"He'll be staying in his hobbit-hole," Dwalin put in.

"Not today," Nori said carelessly.

Ori was the only one to give me a guilty look, save Bofur. "I'm sorry, Leah, but I don't think that we will be seeing Mr. Baggins again," Ori said regretfully.

"I believe that we have seen the last of our hobbit, lass," Balin said.

"I actually think that we might be seeing Bilbo again," Fili said suddenly.

My head whipped towards him. I had always thought that Gandalf was the only person that voted for Bilbo to return. "Really?" I asked.

"You're joking," Kili told his brother.

Fili shook his head and marched his horse in line with Kili's and Misty. "If Leah believes that he'll be coming back... she seems to be brighter than the rest of us put together." There were some noises of indignation. "Of course, if he doesn't come you owe me that money," Fili told me quickly.

"Sure thing," I snorted.

"I'm with you, lassie. He will return," Oin said.

"Thank you, Oin," I said, smiling.

"Can you afford that?" Kili asked.

"Can you?" I shot back.

In all honesty, I wouldn't be able to afford it if I started losing the bets. But I knew that I would win this one and I would win the one with Fili later. Which was good, considering that I really didn't have that much money and I needed some more to live on. We both laughed as the company continued on its way. But it wasn't long before they started to complain about the waste of time that they spent on coming out to the Shire to try and recruit Bilbo. I rolled my eyes and tried to focus on something else.

So I decided to slip one of my knives out of my sheath. At first I just stared at it, but then I tried something that I had never done before. I started to spin it. I started simple. Twirling it sideways in between my fingers, back and forth across my right hand. Then I started moving it sideways, before flipping it over itself, catching it in my middle finger, and spinning it back the other way. It spun back and forth between my fingers, changing its directions on every spin as it moved between my fingers.

The more that I spun it, the more that I realized that I had never actually done this before. I had only done very simple knife spinning with the kitchen knives before. I didn't even know that I could do something like this. It had to be advanced. I had never seen anyone else do it and it looked quite impressive. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw that some of the other dwarves were watching me. Particularly Fili and Kili, whom I was still riding in between. They were both staring down at my hands and watching.

In the meantime, Misty was drifting back and forth between the dwarves and their horses. Everyone was quietly riding for a long while. I had been up by Gandalf earlier, the two of us chatting back and forth. But I didn't linger there for that long. Mostly because Thorin was also up by Gandalf and I knew that he didn't really want to be anywhere near me. In all honesty, I wasn't much in the mood to be near him either. Not yet. Maybe with time. I supposed that I would just speak to Gandalf later.

"I said it. Didn't I say it?" Nori growled.

It appeared that we were back to complaining about how Bilbo's home had been a waste of time. I had been zoned out for a few minutes now. Gandalf was up on his horse at the front of the company, not bothering to listen to our conversations, leading us down a path through a wooded area. Many of the dwarves were agreeing with each other about the total waste of time. A small grin fell over my face. I knew this part... Bilbo was about to come up behind us. I grinned down into my lap.

"I genuinely hope you haven't lost me that much money," Fili said suddenly.

"Just trust me," I said.

"That's true enough!" Dwalin shouted from the middle of the pack.

"Whose idea was it, anyway?" Balin asked.

"Wait! Wait!" Bilbo's voice came from the distance.

A huge grin turned up on the corner of my mouth. Kili's jaw dropped, along with many of the other dwarves'. "You're kidding," Kili said disbelievingly.

"Told you," I teased.

"Well done, Leah," Fili said brightly.

"Thank you," I said happily.

"Not bad, lassie," Oin commended.

"Thank you, Oin. I told you that your faith was not misplaced," I said happily.

The rest of the company looked like they couldn't believe what had just happened. The entire thing made me smile. I knew that it would all work out. And I was thrilled to see that I had been right about Bilbo. Some part of me had been a little nervous that he wouldn't come. Some dwarves were calling out 'whoa' to stop their ponies. I gently pulled back on Misty's reins to get her to stop. Then I turned back and smiled. Bilbo was running to catch up to us. The moment that he did, he handed Balin the contract.

"I signed it!" Bilbo said breathlessly.

Thinking back on it, he had run quite a long way to catch up to us. I was very impressed with how fast he had managed to run. It would have taken me forever to get that far without a pony or something like that. Balin took the contract from Bilbo from up on his horse and inspected it with a pocket glass. He was only looking at it for a few moments. I glanced off to Thorin in the meantime and saw that he was still scowling. Balin finished reading and then smiled at Bilbo.

"Everything appears to be in order. Welcome, Master Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield," Balin said.

As he folded up the contract, I grinned brightly at Bilbo. He was giving me a friendly smile back. I knew that he was going to come and I was thrilled to see that he actually looked somewhat excited. The dwarves suddenly began to cheer. I was mildly impressed that they were being so sweet with Bilbo. But I knew that it wouldn't last. They would all have a number of cruel things to say before we made it to the end of our journey. Balin winked at Bilbo, but Thorin didn't look too impressed.

"Thank you for coming," I called down to Bilbo.

"Thank you for your note. Were you really still betting on me?" Bilbo asked.

"Always," I said honestly.

"Give him a pony," Thorin said irritably, turning his own pony away.

Bilbo glanced up immediately and held out a hand, shaking his head. "No, no, no, no, that - that won’t be necessary, thank you, but I - I'm sure I can keep up on foot," Bilbo said nervously. "I - I - I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know. I even got as far as Frogmorton once - Ah!"

While Bilbo was speaking quickly, his words running together as he tried to get out of having to ride the one remaining pony, I exchanged a look with Fili and Kili. They both nodded and rode their own ponies up to either side of Bilbo. His speech was cut off by the two of them as they rode alongside him and picked him up from behind. Bilbo cried out in surprise as Fili and Kili grabbed his shoulders and placed him down on the pony's back. Immediately I started giggling softly.

As the two of them took their places riding back at my side, I turned back to watch Bilbo. I had seen a number of people who were absolutely terrified of horses. But I was sure that I had never seen someone who was scared of ponies. They were adorable and tiny. Of course, so was Bilbo. That didn't stop me from laughing. Because watching Bilbo ride a pony was one of the funniest things that I had ever seen. He looked quite terrified. The pony neighed and tossed its head, clearly making him quite uncomfortable.

"Come on, Nori, pay up. Go on," Oin called.

That was when it all began. Kili gave a little pout as I smiled brightly at him. He rolled his eyes and scoffed, looking down at his pony's back. I smiled again. Now he knew how I felt each time he gave me one of his annoying smiles. Nori tossed a sack of money to Oin, who gave me a little wink. The two of us laughed as sacks of money began passing between the dwarves. They already looked annoyed having to hand money over to Fili and Oin. They looked furious having to hand it to me.

"Alright, charmer, hand it over," I told Kili.

He bitterly tossed a sack of coins at me. "Enjoy it. You better win later. I'm going to run out of money," Kili warned.

"I have no intention to lose," I said honestly.

The two of us smiled as Fili made another sound of indignation. Once Kili had given up his money pouch to me, a number more started flying at me. I noticed that some of them were being pegged at me a little harder than was completely necessary. I still managed to catch them all. Since Gandalf, Fili, Oin, and I were the only ones who bet in Bilbo's favor, we earned a far larger amount of money than I had been expecting. Thorin didn't bet, but I knew that he would have bet against him.

"Thank you, gentlemen!" I called happily.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Oin cheered.

Some of the dwarves started to laugh. I supposed that it was a rather funny sight. "One more!" Kili shouted.

"Thanks, lad," Oin called as he caught Kili's money pouch.

"What's that about?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"Oh, they took wagers on whether or not you'd turn up. Most of them bet that you wouldn't," Gandalf explained.

Just a moment later, Bilbo started to look around. He saw all of the money bags flying back and forth. He clearly spotted that most of the people were throwing the bags towards the same few dwarves. He eventually looked straight back at me. I took one of the money bags and tossed it up in the air, catching it again. Bilbo started to chuckle, realizing that I had indeed bet on him. I sent him a sweet wink as he looked back at Gandalf. Fili and Kili were laughing. I was just thrilled that Bilbo had come along after all.

At least I wouldn't be the least useless person here. For now, that was. "What did you think?" Bilbo asked Gandalf.

"Hmm," the old wizard hummed.

I had almost forgotten that Gandalf didn't immediately tell Bilbo that he bet on him showing up. It would have been rather rude of him not to, considering that Gandalf was the one to pick Bilbo as the fourteenth (or fifteenth, depending on who was counted to have joined first) member of the company. Suddenly Gandalf caught a sack of money tossed to him over his shoulder and placed it in his bag. Bilbo looked slightly relieved at the notion of faith.

"My dear fellow, I never doubted you for a second," Gandalf said proudly.

There was something pleased in the back of Bilbo's eyes. Perhaps because he realized just how happy we were that he had come. Maybe not all of them, but I was happy and so was Gandalf. And it appeared that the rest of the company were slowly growing accustomed to him, too. We rode in silence for a little while as I continued to spin my knife in my hand. About five minutes passed before Bilbo started to sneeze loudly.

"Oh. All this horse hair, I'm having a reaction," Bilbo said.

"Are you allergic?" I asked.

"I might be," Bilbo muttered.

It was a damned good thing that I wasn't allergic to them. In fact, there wasn't anything that I was allergic to. That I knew of, at least. Bilbo was slowly searching his pockets. I assumed that he was looking for his handkerchief. Which, of course, he had forgotten back home. I gathered my pack and placed it in my lap, flipping through the contents to see if there was anything that I could give him. Bilbo was unable to find his handkerchief, and he looked up in shock.

"No, no, wait, wait, stop! Stop! We have to turn around," Bilbo called loudly.

As he had been searching, Bilbo and his pony had drifted to the back of the lineup. I turned back to see just how panicked he really was. The entire company came to a halt, and the dwarves started objecting and asking what the problem was. None of them looked thrilled that Bilbo was calling for us to stop. It was already a long journey and we didn't need to be lingering around more than we needed to, for sleep and breaks and food.

"What on earth is the matter?" Gandalf asked.

"I forgot my handkerchief," Bilbo said.

"I'm sure that you'll be able to manage without it," I said.

In all honesty, I was trying to keep the other dwarves from laughing at him anymore than they had to. I felt terribly for him. It was going to take a while before he could acclimate to being out in the public eye. Bilbo was still tearing through his pockets, probably hoping that there was a chance that he had left it somewhere else, in a different pocket maybe. Bofur tore a strip of cloth from his clothing and tossed it to Bilbo. I groaned in disgust at the dirty piece of material.

"Here! Use this," Bofur chirped.

In a jerk reaction, Bilbo caught the rag and looked at it in disgust. I thought that he would drop it, but he actually held onto it. I cringed, thinking of having to use it on his face after having been pressed against Bofur's sweaty stomach for hours and days on end. The dwarves all started laughing at Bilbo's misfortune. I sent him a guilty look. Maybe I should have remembered to write that on the note... Just a moment later, we began to continue our journey.

"Move on," Thorin called.

"You'll have to manage without pocket handkerchiefs and a good many other things, Bilbo Baggins, before we reach our journey's end. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you; the world is ahead," Gandalf said brightly.

It looked like Gandalf's words might have had some of an impact on Bilbo. They certainly had an impact on me. I smiled at Gandalf's words and leaned forwards on Misty. He was right. The entire thing was wonderful. We were traveling through the most beautiful lands that I never would have seen before. As I went back through my bag, I pulled out one of my training cloths that I had tucked into my boot earlier. Thankfully it was the only clean cloth that I had.

"Here you are," I said, handing him over the cloth.

"Thank you, Leah," Bilbo said happily.

"Might be a little sweaty," I said, realizing that it had been tucked into my sneaker. "Sorry."

"I think that I'll just have to get used to that," Bilbo said.

"I fear that you will," I agreed.

The company lapsed into relative silence after that. There was plenty of chatter exchanged, but it was softer now and I was more focused on looking all around us. Nothing back in Florida was anything like this. And we had some beautiful places. There was something about this place... With all of the rolling hills and people who were spending their days gardening. It made me wish that I had always lived here. Life was so much slower and easier. Not constant competition and rushing around.

Each time that I looked over at Bilbo, I could tell that he was feeling the exact same way. Neither one of us had ever seen anything like this. Clearly the company thought that I was rather interesting to watch. They were all watching my face contort in different smiles and looks of wonder. This entire world was just so beautiful. The more that I looked, the more that I realized that it really was nothing compared to my own home, where it was so industrial that no one could appreciate the natural beauty of the world.

In the back of my mind, I realized that most of the company was leaving me alone as we traveled. Only a few people spoke to me and they were just quick, passing comments. They clearly so just how enamored I was with the entire place. Of course, they thought that it was for a different reason than it really was. They thought that it was just because I had never really been out this far. Not because it was the first time that I had ever been in Middle Earth.

Throughout most of the journey, I allowed Misty to meander back and forth among the company freely. I didn't really care where she ended up. Not while I was watching the scenery and not speaking. Sometimes Misty would just allow me to stroke her hair and other times she wanted to meander to see the other ponies and members of the company. I was purposely trying to keep her around Fili, Kili, Ori, Gandalf, Bofur, and Bilbo; the members of the company who I knew did like me.

As we passed throughout the lands of Middle Earth and the Shire, I stopped looking around and started chatting away with Fili and Kili, to the point that it might have been excessive. I noticed that when I was speaking with them was the only time that the rest of the company would speak with me. They likely just wanted someone else to start the conversation. Not that I blamed them. It would take a while before they all knew exactly how to strike up a conversation with me.

Throughout our travels, I tried to bond with the other members of the company. But it was hard. Mostly because they didn't seem overly willing to speak to me. Although Bofur did start teaching me to sing some of the songs that the dwarves knew and regularly sang. Bilbo was pointing out the places and people who we were traveling past. Ori was showing me some of the landscape drawings that he was doing as we rode. I still hadn't gotten the chance to speak with Gandalf. That would have to be in private.

Hours passed before we stopped at The Green Dragon Inn. We had taken only three breaks; two for the bathroom and one for lunch. I was extremely grateful to loop Misty up in the stables and walk around. It wasn't quite sunset. The sun was just starting to sink off in the distance. It would be another two hours before it went completely down. It would be enough time to have our wrestling match, get my archery training, and get a path set out for the next few weeks. That was likely why we stopped so early tonight.

"We'll stop here for the night. Unpack your things and get settled," Thorin ordered.

As we walked into the Inn, we started reserving ourselves rooms for the night. It was a cute little Inn. There was a bar downstairs where a number of travelers were. There were some children who were running back and forth and I smiled at them. Most of the people in the room were hobbits but there were a number of humans, too. At least, I assumed that they were. It was a little strange living in a world where there were more than just humans.

Upstairs were the bedrooms that we would be staying in for the night. I was excited to have a real bed for tonight since I wouldn't have one for a long time soon enough. Most of the dwarves would be sharing their bedrooms. The only people who wouldn't be sharing were Bilbo, Gandalf, and myself. I would have gladly shared with someone, but I realized that it wasn't proper for them. So I used the money that Gandalf gave me to get myself a room near the rest of the dwarves.

"We will be downstairs in the bar in ten minutes," Gandalf said.

"Okay. Thanks," I called back.

Waving off the other dwarves, letting them know that I would be back downstairs soon enough, I headed up the stairs and into the room that I had been assigned. Balin was on one side of me with Dwalin sharing. Oin and Gloin were on the other side. Inside my room there was a nice wooden chest and a large-four poster bed that was made out of a dark wood. There were a few deep green blankets spread over it. I smiled. It looked like something that belonged in a wood cabin.

Striding into the room, I dropped my things on a chair near the desk in the corner and headed back into the bathroom. It was a little strange to have to use an old-fashioned tap - which was the way that they got water here - but I managed to figure out how to use it. Soon enough I would only have the water from lakes and streams. I washed my hands and face, followed by my teeth. Once I felt a little cleaner I let down my hair, which was now slightly curly. It made me smile. My hair had always been pin straight.

Once I was done getting ready for dinner, I headed back over to my desk. I plopped myself down in the wooden chair and stared out the window blankly. My left hand went on top of my right as I started fingering at the arrowhead ring that I had. The same one that I had always worn. I wished that I could have remembered when exactly I had gotten it and who had given it to me. It didn't matter how hard I tried to concentrate, I couldn't remember. It just kind of appeared one day and I had always worn it after that.

A few minutes later, I stopped fingering at the sharp arrowhead - which was sure to make me bleed if I kept messing with it - and pulled out the journal. I traced my quill over the front cover before flipping it open to a blank page. Just as I was about to start another letter to Harley, something that calmed me down, there was a knock at the door. I jumped up, closing the journal, and ran over it. When I threw open the heavy wood, I immediately saw that it was Fili and Kili.

"Boys," I greeted.

"Dinnertime, my lady," Fili said, sweeping into a low bow.

Snorting softly, I shoved past them. "Don't you start charming me. I'm not taking it easy on you later," I warned.

"Even if I beg you to?" Fili asked.

"Especially not then," I teased.

"I think that you have a real challenge on your hands, brother," Kili said.

"He does," I agreed.

The three of us all laughed before heading down the hallway and going to trudge down the stairs. I darted down them - eager for a meal after the long day's trek - and met up with some of the other dwarves on the way down. Immediately I started giggling when I realized that the dwarves were already sitting downstairs (having pushed some of the tables together) ad having themselves a food fight in the middle of the tavern. They were also singing a sweet little tune as they fought back and forth.

"Oh you can search far and wide,  
You can drink the whole town dry,  
But you'll never find a beer so brown,

Oh you'll never find a beer so brown,

As the one we drink in our hometown,  
As the one we drink in our hometown.  
You can drink your fancy ales,  
You can drink them by the flagon,  
But the only brew for the brave and true...  
..Comes from the Green Dragon!"

"It's astounding how quickly your friends can destroy a place," I commented.

"This is nothing," Kili said.

"I don't think that I ever want to see something," I said, spotting the food flying into every corner of the tavern.

These poor owners. I assumed that they were used to people like the dwarves coming in, though, since no one was making a fuss about the mess. "Have a little fun, Leah," Fili teased.

"Excuse you! I'm very fun," I barked indignantly.

"So join in," Kili goaded.

Sighing softly, I headed over towards the middle of the table. "These poor owners. You always seem to be destroying whatever it is that's sitting around," I said softly.

"Oh, come on, Leah. Smile a little bit," Fili teased, placing a hand on one shoulder.

"And have some fun," Kili added, placing his hand on the other.

"Okay," I said.

If they wanted to have fun, I would show them fun. So I took two glasses of water and threw it on the boys. The dwarves howled in laughter as Fili and Kili stood still as statues, dumbfounded by my actions. A moment later I grabbed a few pieces of lettuce and tossed it at them. It stuck in their hair and beards from the water. I was now cracking up along with the rest of the dwarves, save the brothers. Fili and Kili were currently yelling at each other, trying to figure out whose fault their predicament was.

Finally they seemed to realize that the person to blame wasn't either one of them. I gasped as they glanced right up at me. I squealed softly before darting off to try and get far away from them. The rest of the dwarves were laughing and cheering as I ran off from them. I wasn't sure who they were rooting for. I was about to escape up the stairs and back to my room when I was cut off by the two of them, cornered back against the wall. They were grinning in victory.

But suddenly I remembered something. Part of the way that I had paid to train in my gym was by teaching the younger kids about stunt fighting. Since I didn't want to take a job at some retail store or restaurant to pay as my parents had originally suggested. Being a large city with a reasonably big film and television industry, stunt fighting was big back home. And I had always been good at it. I knew exactly how to get out of this and get the dwarves to stop laughing at me, since they still thought that I was caught.

Kili's hand was on my shoulder to keep me in place and I twisted my own hand underneath, shoving upwards to throw him off. I stepped forward as he stumbled back and turned to face away from him. I threw my elbow back into his chest as he grabbed my arm and went into a handless cartwheel, dropping onto my knees at the end and throwing Kili over himself, sprawling onto his back. As he weakly stumbled back to his feet, I ran after him and kicked his chest, sending him flying back over the table.

There was no laughter now. Just a stunned silence. Although, as Kili got back to his feet, food now splattered all over him, the laughter roared up in the tavern. As Fili ran over to grab my hands and press them behind my back, I used his chest as leverage to kick up into Kili's chest, sending him flying back again. I threw my head back into Fili's, making him release me, as I ran back after Kili, who was now straightening up again. I wrapped one arm around his throat as he tried to wrap an arm around my waist.

Without slowing down, I ran forwards and pulled my feet up off of the ground. I went soaring around his back, keeping his arm that had been trying to wrap around me tight in my grip as I landed back on the floor on the other side of him. I pulled his arm upwards, obviously straining his hold, before letting him go. Fili was now trying to recover and get back to me. But I had showed them up this much. I wasn't planning on stopping now.

Ducking under one of Fili's rams, who was still trying to hit me much softer than I knew that he could, I blocked the second punch with my forearm. I grabbed onto that hand and wrapped my arm underneath his. Wrapping my arms around him, I flipped over his back just as I had done before. As I went over his back, I kicked a recovering Kili in the head, as I landed in front of him, trapping Fili's head in between my legs. I shifted slightly to put one leg behind his back and the other over his neck.

Rolling us both over again, I trapped him in an arm bar, waiting for him to tap against my thigh. It took a few seconds for him to gently tap against my thigh and I released my hold on him, shimmying back away from him before kicking back up to my feet. Even that move along was impressive. I had a feeling that none of the rest of them could do that. As I turned back to the brothers, I noticed that they were both splayed out on their backs, trying to suck air back into their lungs.

They looked stunned. Not just from the fight. Also because they hadn't been expecting me to do that. But I was desperate to get them to stop laughing at me. This was sure to help. I couldn't help but to think about the number of young girls that I had taught those moves to try and intimidate their male friends. It was a good thing that I knew how to actually connect the hits and not just make them look impressive. Who knew that all of those hours of teaching would actually come in handy one day?

The two brothers were struggling to get back to their feet. Turning back to the table, I noticed that the entire company was staring at me like I had lost my mind. Maybe I shouldn't have done that... But just as quickly as they had silenced themselves when I had started the fight, they started laughing hysterically. I blushed softly as I turned back to Fili and Kili and offered them hands up. They were both grumbling, clearly embarrassed, as I took my seat back at the table.

Dwalin leaned over Kili and slapped me on the back. "Well done, lassie," he said, still laughing.

Besides me, he probably found the entire thing the funniest. "Thank you." I turned back to Fili and flashed a bright smile. "I look forward to our fight later," I teased.

"I was planning on taking it easy on you," Fili growled.

"It won't make a difference," I said flippantly.

The dwarves all started laughing at the misfortune of the two brothers. I grinned down at the table as I started cracking my knuckles. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed messing around with stunt fighting. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Gandalf was giving me another smile. He was clearly pleased that I had managed to prove that I wasn't completely useless.

"You just caught us off guard!" Fili barked indignantly.

"I'm sure that I did. Don't worry, you'll get your chance later," I teased.

It was rather nice to mess with them for once. Finally there was something that I knew that I was better with than them. Fili's cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. I giggled softly as I went back to enjoying my dinner of fish and chips. Something that I actually knew from back home. Kili was sitting next to me and giving me a look that made me cheeks burn. I wasn't sure that it was, but I liked it. He clearly thought that it was rather funny that I beat him. Fili was being a good sport about it, too.

Mostly they were making an issue just to tease me about it. We spent much of the dinner talking and laughing with each other as Fili and Kili got over the stiffness in their limbs from being kicked around. About halfway through the meal, Bofur and Nori started teaching me some old-fashioned songs that the company were singing, apparently from their lives in the Blue Mountains. I found myself having more fun than I had had in a long time. Nori even let me take a turn with his flute, since I had once played in band.

My piping wasn't nearly as good as his, but it wasn't half-bad, which was impressive since I hadn't played in years. They eventually stopped singing and went to puffing on their pipes. I had never smoked - as I couldn't forget Mike telling me how awful it was for a fighter - but I did like watching them. They never seemed so relaxed as when they were doing it. The sun was finally starting to really set when Kili gently placed a hand on my arm. I turned away to see what he wanted.

"Come on. Time to train," Kili goaded.

"Damn you. I was actually having fun," I growled.

Kili laughed softly as he stood from the table and offered me a hand. "Haven't you heard? It is my job to make sure that you have no fun," Kili teased.

"Ah, well you're doing a marvelous job. Of course, if you let me kick you around a little more, we can easily rectify that," I shot back.

"You just surprised me," Kili huffed.

"Clearly. Whatever helps you sleep at night," I shrugged.

"Where did you learn that?" Kili asked.

"Rohan. We teach the young girls that men will not always be there to protect them. And there are some... unsavory men lingering all over the world. You can't rely on someone else to defend you. Do it yourself. That's advice that I grew up on. I was so good at it that my own instructor had me start to teach the younger girls," I explained, altering a few details.

"Speaking for men everywhere, I would advise against getting into a fight with you," Kili said.

I smiled softly and shook my head. "Well put up a sword against my throat and I'll lose," I admitted, eyeing the sword that was strapped to Kili's back.

"Exactly what we're out here for."

"Maybe one day I'll be half as good as you are."

Kili paused for a moment and gave me a good once-over. "Tell you what. We'll trade," he finally said.

"Trade?" I questioned.

"You can teach me how to fight the way that you do and I'll teach you how to shoot the way that I do," Kili offered, slipping an arrow out of the quiver on my back and twirling it in his own hands.

"That... actually sounds like a good deal," I said slowly.

"We focus on your shooting for a few weeks. At least, until you have the basics down," Kili said.

"Okay. Teach away," I said brightly.

It would be rather fun to be just as good - if not better - of an archer than Kili. I knew that would never happen, but I could at least get pretty good myself. Kili grinned at me and motioned for me to take off my bow. We started with the basics, just like Kili had said we would. He was rearranging my shooting position, since I was apparently slightly off. He made numerous corrections to my stance. Pushing the curve out of my spine, realigning my hips, and raising my shin so that I was looking level with the target.

All of the minor corrections were just enough to have been causing me to miss my shots beforehand. Then we moved forward for Kili to teach me how to aim properly. He taught me which eye was my dominant (right, as I had been expecting) and showed me exactly how to line it up with the shot. Then he explained how adjusting for wind corrections worked; aiming into the wind and judging correction by wind speed. Adjusting for wind speed was something that I had never even thought of before.

Then he taught me how to make accurate shots with moving targets. We hadn't fired an arrow yet, but he was explaining how it worked to me. He explained how I had to aim if I wanted to hit something that was moving. He even spent a few minutes teaching me how to track a moving target - which wasn't easy. Kili even told me that it would be a lot of practice. But with his help he promised that I would eventually be able to learn to judge how fast objects were moving and altering the path of my arrow.

Once he was sure that I at least understood what he was talking about, he showed me to correct the grip that I was using and where to anchor the arrow. Apparently my grip was slightly too tight. He loosened it and moved my fingers back in line, re-positioning my fingers on the nock. He had to repeatedly move my anchor point back to the corner of my mouth. By the time that I was perfectly positioned, I found that I had been making numerous mistakes throughout my very short archery career.

"Ready to make a shot?" Kili asked, after almost twenty minutes.

"Pick my target," I said.

Kili looked off into the distance for a moment before nodding. "Middle of that tree. See it?" he asked, pointing to it.

"Yes."

His finger was pointed straight at a tree that was about twenty feet away. I should have been expecting him to point out a tree that was reasonably far away. I sighed at the sight of it. At least it wasn't like the target that Thorin had given me. This one was good for someone who was just starting out that had a good archery teacher. So I followed Kili's earlier instructions and slowly positioned myself to take the shot.

Letting out a few deep breaths, I brought the bow up and positioned it right up in front of my eyes. From what I could see, I was aiming right on point. I wanted to try and make Kili proud. I wanted him to see that his lessons weren't a waste. That was what I really wanted. I wanted to show the entire company that my time spent with him wasn't for naught. So I gently and slowly let my fingers up on the arrow and watched as it flew off. When I lowered the bow, I saw that the arrow had pierced the knot of the tree.

I turned back excitedly to see that Kili was nodding at my shot. "Look at that. Not bad," Kili said.

"You're not a bad teacher," I commended.

Kili grinned before gently nudging me in the back. "Come on. Back at it," he goaded.

"Can't let me goof off for even five minutes?" I groaned.

"After you hit me earlier? Absolutely not."

"I barely touched you."

Kili scowled at me. "If I wasn't so convinced that you were going to win, I would bet on Fili," he teased.

"Do you really want to lose two bets in one day?"

"Exactly why I am getting on you," he said, giving me a small smile. I rolled my eyes as he shoved into me again. "Go on. Aim again."

"Fine," I muttered.

We ended up practicing for almost an hour. I had a feeling that the sun might have set a little slower in Middle Earth. Or maybe we hadn't been out for that long. Maybe I really was enjoying myself. I ended up making almost all of my shots. Only about one in five missed. Not too bad for a beginner. I knew that I still had a long way to go - if I wanted to be able to save his life - but I had at least proven myself somewhat useful with the bow and arrow.

As we continued on our journey, I intended to ask Dwalin to teach me knife and sword skills. Not because I thought that he would be fun to learn from. He was very scary. But I knew that he would be a good teacher and wouldn't take it easy on me. It would be all business rather than fun. There was also the fact that he might have been more open to helping me after my episode with Fili and Kili in the bar earlier. He seemed to like me a little more now that I had proven myself to be more than a useless maiden.

As I reached back for another arrow from my quiver, my fingers wrapped around the only one that remained. "One arrow left. What should I do with it?" I asked, spinning it in my hand.

"How about a challenge?" Kili offered.

"This isn't a challenge?" I asked disbelievingly.

Kili laughed and stole the arrow from me. I reached over and snatched it back quickly. "Let's try a moving target," Kili said.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"Take aim," Kili ordered.

"For what?"

"Remember talking about how to track a moving target?"

"Yes."

"Keep that in mind."

"Okay."

My eyebrows rose. I couldn't believe that he thought that I was going to be able to hit a moving target. I was a beginner. I couldn't do that. He leaned down and picked up a rather large rock. He wrapped it in some thick moss that he pulled up from the ground before taking one of his gloves and wrapping that over the rock. He showed it to me and I finally nodded, realizing that he wanted me to shoot down the rock. He had wrapped it in everything so that the arrowhead would have something to catch onto.

"That's tiny," I commented.

"Did you never challenge your students when you were teaching them to fight? Did you always keep them in their comfort zone?" Kili asked.

Grumbling under my breath, I nodded. "Alright. Point taken," I muttered.

To be fair, I had probably been one of the hardest teachers to have. I always challenged my students because I believed that they could be better. I guessed that it was coming back to me now. I watched as Kili tossed the rock high up in the air. I took aim as quickly and effectively as I could before releasing the arrow. I watched with a hint of surprise as the edge of my arrow just barely managed to clip the rock. The rock hit the ground again as the arrow flew a short distance away.

It wouldn't have killed someone, but at least I could hit a moving target. With practice, I could get better. Kili turned back to me with an impressed smile. "See? You are better than you think that you are," he said.

"I barely hit it," I groaned.

"But you did hit it," Kili said.

"Well... I suppose that you're a good teacher," I admitted.

"Suppose?" Kili parroted.

"You're not getting more than that! You said that you would bet on Fili," I growled.

"But I'm betting on you," Kili said, stepping into me and pressing a finger into my shoulder.

Laughing softly, I blushed and glanced down at the ground before flickering my eyes back up to him. "And how many of your other friends are betting on me?" I asked softly.

"I am," Gandalf's voice came.

"So am I," Bilbo's voice added.

We both turned to see what had just happened. It appeared that the rest of the company had come to join us outside. I wasn't sure if they had seen my latest shot. I hoped that they had. Kili's hand dropped from my shoulder and I looked back at him. That was when I realized just how close the two of us had been standing together. I took a step back from him rather bashfully. Kili grabbed my bow back from me as Fili walked up to my side. There's nothing to be embarrassed about, twit. He's just teaching you.

"Thank you. Both of you," I said to Gandalf and Bilbo.

"I bet on you as well," Ori put in.

I turned to him with a bright smile. "I promise that I won't disappoint you," I said sweetly.

"We shall see about that," Fili said quickly.

"Really? You're getting big-headed after earlier?" I asked.

"You just surprised me!" Fili barked.

"I believe you," I said honestly.

"So... How long do the two of you go?" Bilbo asked somewhat awkwardly.

"Until someone pins the other. That's typically how wrestling works. Until someone can't go any more or until they get pinned and can't get back up," I explained.

I gave a quick glance to Fili and he nodded his consent. "That sounds dangerous," Bilbo commented.

"Not dangerous. The worst that could happen is someone gets a pulled muscle or is a little sore in the morning," I explained.

At least, when it came to someone who was trained, which we both reasonably were. All of the dwarves gathered around to watch the fight. They all wanted to know what was about to happen. They were clearly excited after the show earlier this evening. They still likely wanted to see Fili beat me anyways. The two of us took our spots opposite each other as the rest of the company stepped back to watch. I noticed that even Thorin looked interested.

"Are you ready?" Fili asked.

"Oh, yes. Are you?" I asked.

"Of course, my lady," Fili teased.

"That's not going to stop me from handing your ass to you," I said.

And it wouldn't. This was my other chance to embarrass him, something that I liked doing. It would also show the dwarves that I didn't need to rely on the element of surprise to beat someone in a fight. They started laughing as they counted the two of us down. I giggled at Fili's affronted face as I got down into fighting position. He followed a moment later. I was very grateful that we were in grass. It wouldn't hurt nearly as bad when I threw him over himself.

Not bothering to hesitate, the moment that the dwarves got down to zero, I darted forward before Fili could straighten up. It was a good thing that he was about my height. It made everything much easier. I jumped straight up onto his shoulder, hooking one leg over his shoulder and the other around his rib cage. Then I leaned back, placing my hands on the ground, pulling him up and over me. I landed on my hands and knees as Fili was thrown onto his back.

Hooting laughter was all that I could hear. I turned back just as Fili managed to get back to his feet. I ran forward and threw myself over into a sideways front flip. As my back foot came down, it connected with Fili's chest. He stumbled back as I threw three consecutive punches at him. Unfortunately he was able to deflect all of them. I pulled up a leg to kick him in the side of the head, which he just barely managed to deflect. Clearly he wasn't used to someone moving as fast as I did.

It was a gift. As he tried to straighten up from my earlier hit, I moved behind him and placed a hand on his bent thigh and the other on his shoulder. I pulled myself upwards sideways and wrapped my legs over his throat, my first underneath his throat and the other behind his neck. As I wrapped them tightly around his throat, the two of us went falling o the ground. Fili went flying over himself as I kept him in between my legs. Unfortunately the momentum was so much that he went flying away from me.

There was more laughter at that. We both jumped up to our feet and stared each other down. This time Fili was the one to run after me. He threw a punch out with each arm, both of which I managed to back away from before ducking under another hit. As I straightened up, I grabbed his arm and twisted it around. He used his spare hand to punch my elbow and cause me to drop his arm. I ducked under another swing, blocked another two punches, and missed my own back at him.

As he grabbed my arm again and twisted it behind my back, I spun into him and went over myself in a handless cartwheel. The sudden spinning got Fili to loosen his grip on me. As I came back down to the ground, I grabbed his wrist tightly and kneeled down to the floor. I used my spare hand to pull my legs upwards and shove my foot back into Fili's head. As he hit the ground from the impact, I straightened back up.

Fili was faster than I had given him credit for. As he got back to his feet, I spun and wound up into a roundhouse kick. My short legs missed. He repeated one back to me, which he clearly wasn't practiced with as he missed me. As I straightened back up, I made a move like I was about to jump into his arms. He moved to catch me when I leaned backwards, wrapping my legs around his throat and hanging upside down, using my momentum to revolve back to the ground, pick him upright, and throw him to the ground.

Again Fili managed to get back to his feet. He was facing away from me when I ran up from behind him and literally jumped onto his shoulders. I sat on his shoulders before tightening my legs and wrenching us off to the side. We went rolling back to the ground and rolled over twice. As I leaned back up, I got onto my knees and twisted my foot to aim straight at Fili's head. My foot managed to connect as he hit the ground again.

He was definitely a dwarf, as he didn't easily give up. I reared back and punched him straight in the face, which clearly surprised him as his head whipped around. I sent a kick that he deflected before sending one at the back of his knee and the other to the side of his head. One hit went straight into his stomach, I missed one to his head and an uppercut to his jaw. He caught my arm as I tried to hit him again and he shoved me backwards. I jammed my elbow down into his, turned into him, and grabbed his arm.

Without letting him prepare, I tightened my grip and pulled down, throwing him over my back and sending him sprawling into the dirt. As Fili stumbled back to his feet, I ducked underneath his punch, threw one into his stomach and at his head, threw another two that missed, ducked underneath another one of his swings, and kicked him in the back. As he stumbled away from me, I ran back up to him. I used his slightly bent knee as a step as I jumped up, whirled around, and whipped my foot across his head.

I kicked straight out at him as he was on his knees and deflected a punch from him. I grabbed his arm as he made to punch me again and put my hand behind my shoulder, pushing him down. I thrust my knee into his chin before wrenching him back, sending another knee into his face, and jumped up and behind him. I hooked one leg behind his back and the other in front of his throat. Still holding his arm, I brought the two of us up and over back into a sprawl in the dirt.

To my surprise, he managed to pull his arm out of my grip and shove me off of him. He shoved me back underneath him when I wound up and kicked him in the chest. He stumbled back as I kicked at him three times, the third having been wound up to actually connect with his chest. We both sent a number of hits and kicks that missed each other before Fili grabbed one of my arms, pulling me into him, and wrapped the other back around my throat. He was trying to pull me over like I had done before.

As he threw me over, I went into a handless cartwheel, altering his plan, and ducked down to swipe out his legs from underneath him as I landed again. He hit the ground in a sprawl. I grabbed his arm and wrenched it back, pushing my knee into his back. To my surprise, he rolled out of my grip and never let go of my hand. I aimed a few kicks and punches that missed before kicking him in the stomach and then pulling my leg up, hooking my knee around the back of his neck, and wrenching downwards.

He went spinning out of my grip and hit the ground breathlessly. I stepped back, grinning down at him. "Don't tell me that you're done already?" I asked.

There was a howling laughter that was coming from the dwarves. They clearly hadn't been expecting me to be able to fight the way that I could, for an extended period of time against someone physically stronger than me. I could see that Thorin and Dwalin, who had been the hardest to impress so far, looked the tiniest bit impressed. Fili was slowly getting back to his feet. I could tell that he was absolutely exhausted.

To be honest, so was I. Fili was tough. So I decided to end it. As Fili attempted to get back to his feet I ran after him and rolled over his back, wrapping my arm under his elbow and throwing him over me. I pulled his arm back up before stepping over his leg, rotating slightly, and using my other foot to hook over his throat. I fell back against the ground and kept him pinned underneath me. This time he was too weak to get back to his feet.

We were both sweating by the end of the fight. I was unaccustomed to someone hitting quite as hard as Fili did. Blocking his hits was definitely hard. As he learned how I fought, it would get harder. But for now he was easy enough to beat. It was also strange fighting in these kinds of clothes. Fili tapped my thigh and I released him, getting back to my feet. Fili was coughing as he tried to get back to his. I smirked and brushed the accumulated dirt off of my body. The dwarves were watching me in shock.

"I figured that since you were taking it easy on me, I should give you the same courtesy," I said, breaking the silence.

That was all that it took. Everyone who was watching, the dwarves, and Bilbo, and Gandalf, all started to howl with laughter again. They sounded much more excited than they had before. Kili walked over to try and help Fili back to his feet. He looked exhausted and in a little bit of pain. I smiled as money bags started to be tossed back and forth. Ori, Bilbo, Gandalf, and Kili were the only ones who had bet on me so they earned most of the money. Gandalf was the only person to win both bets today.

Once Fili was back upright, I walked over and hugged Fili. "You're not half-bad, Fili," I said, pulling away from his hug.

"You are quite good, Leah," Fili said breathlessly.

"Thank you. Are you alright?" I asked carefully.

"A little stunned, but I'm fine," Fili said.

"Ghivashith," Bifur said.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"He called you a treasure, someone who is young," Bofur explained.

"How do I say thank you?" I asked.

Before Bofur could open his mouth and tell me, Thorin moved forward and shouted something else in Khuzdul. He then looked back at me. "Dwarves do not teach outsiders Khuzdul, even to friends," Thorin growled.

As he looked away, I glanced back at Kili. "Oh, friends. I'm impressed," I whispered.

"Don't let him hear you say that," Kili warned.

"We would not even be speaking in Khuzdul around you if we did not have to get used to out long journey together," Thorin explained.

"Don't worry. I have no intention of learning it or ever repeating it to anyone else," I growled.

"How did you learn to fight like that, Leah?" Dori asked, clearly trying to diffuse the building tension.

"I learned when I was a kid. We were taught to not rely on men to defend us. There are some very bad people in the world and you don't always get to choose when you come across them. I can't rely on someone else to protect me. I have to know to protect myself. I was so good that I was designated to teach the younger children," I explained to the company.

"I will give you this. You are quite talented when unarmed," Thorin said slowly.

It didn't sound like he was happy to say even that much. "Thank you, Thorin," I said, smiling earnestly.

"Rohan believes that women are warriors, as well?" Bombur asked.

"We believe that everyone has the right and capability to defend themselves. It is up to us to decide what to do with that right," I said as simply as possible.

"Spoken like a true warrior. Well done, lassie," Dwalin commended.

"Thank you."

"Are other women like you?" Gloin asked.

"Fighters?" I questioned.

"Yes," Gloin said.

"There are a number of them. Not all of them, but many," I said, thinking of Amber, Layla, and Jessica.

"Any lass who can beat you is a winner for me," Bofur said.

"I would gladly watch another demonstration," Kili said.

Fili huffed in the distance. "I'm sure that you would," I told Kili, rolling my eyes.

"That's an interesting way that you fight, lassie," Nori commented.

"Well I'm used to fighting mortal men. People a foot taller than me. I'm not that heavy. There has to be a way for me to use their weight against them. That's what I do. Unfortunately for Fili, he's heavy enough that it's very easy to topple him over. Easier for me, we're just about the same height. It means that I use less energy to get level with him," I explained.

"You're welcome," Fili growled.

"Now if only we had all bet on you this time," Ori teased the others.

"I'm sure that you won't be making that mistake again," I reasoned.

"It appears that we may have misjudged you, lass," Balin said, walking over and placing a hand on my shoulder.

Turning back around to him, I smiled softly. "That's very pleasing to hear, Balin," I said happily.

"Now someone just has to teach her to swing a sword," Oin said.

There went thinking that we were friends. "I could do that," Fili offered.

"Now you're just looking for some payback," I said.

Fili grinned sideways at me. "You teach me to fight like that, I'll teach you how to properly wield a sword," Fili offered.

"Deal," I said.

"Come!" Thorin shouted, interrupting the moment. "We leave at first light. Turn in."

We could only have so much fun before Thorin started shouting at us to stop. So we all headed back into the tavern. I glanced around and exchanged goodbyes and good-nights with most of the dwarves. I gave Fili a hug and a tease for losing. Kili made me promise that I would beat him up any time that Fili got too big-headed. As they headed upstairs, I headed to the bar. I bought myself a mug of tea to try and help myself sleep. A few seconds later, Gandalf fell into the chair next to me.

"The dwarves seemed to be growing accustomed to you," Gandalf said.

"They're... surprisingly sweet. And fun," I said honestly. But a few seconds later, a horrible thought occurred to me. "I still don't know if I can stay here."

Gandalf nodded slowly. "I understand."

"Do you?" I asked.

"This is not home to you. Not yet, at least," Gandalf said.

"This isn't home at all, Gandalf. Rohan isn't even home. It's just a place from a movie to me. Florida, back in my own dimension, that's home to me," I said, not completely sure whether or not I was telling him the truth. "And... I appreciate the Valar thinking that I could change something, but I just - I can't."

"Why is that?" Gandalf asked.

"Having to look at the company knowing... knowing what's coming..." I said, my voice cracking. "It's already hard. It's only going to get harder."

"What if you could change something?" Gandalf offered.

"What if I can't?" I shot back.

"But if you do," Gandalf said.

I shook my head at him, draining some of the tea. "This is not one of those moments. If I can't do what they need me to do... I can't watch that," I said, thinking of their horrible deaths.

"You looked very at ease with the dwarves today," Gandalf said, trying another tactic.

"I was," I admitted.

"Particularly young Mister's Fili and Kili," Gandalf said pointedly.

"Stop," I said, sensing where this was going.

"Perhaps if I cannot sway you, they can."

"And what exactly are you going to tell them?"

"You have a few weeks to think about your final destination, Miss Ambrose."

"I really want to help, I just don't know if I can."

"If it helps, I have faith in you."

"Thank you, Gandalf," I said softly.

The look on his face told me that he genuinely meant it. Gandalf did believe me. He placed a hand on my shoulder as he got to his feet. "Enjoy your tea, my dear. You should get to sleep soon. We will be leaving at first light," Gandalf warned.

"Okay. Goodnight, Gandalf," I said.

For a long while I sat at the bar, finishing my tea, lost in deep thought. The entire time I was wondering if it was really right for me to stay with the company. I wasn't sure if I would ever get a real answer. I liked being with them. I really did enjoy being in their company. They were a lot of fun. More fun than anyone else I knew. Even the dwarves who didn't really like me did at least respect me at times and laugh when I made a joke, although it was typically at the expense of Fili and Kili.

My thoughts only got more jumbled the longer that I sat in my place. It wasn't one of those moments that thinking made things easier. It was just the opposite. Would it really be worth it to try and save Thorin, Fili, and Kili? What if I had to watch them die - particularly the brothers? I had only known them for about two days right now. It broke my heart to think about how close we could all get in the span of over a year. Just to watch them die, knowing that I could have changed it...

The entire thing made me sick to my stomach. What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to change one of the most prolific moments of the story? In some ways I had already proven myself. I was a good archer - with still targets, at least - and definitely the best wrestler here. Maybe there was a chance that I could become a better sword fighter and a little better with throwing knives. But even with all of that, there was no promise that I could achieve my task.

Because then would come the issue of eventually battling Bolg and Azog - ensuring that both of them were dead - if I wanted any chance of saving Thorin, Fili, and Kili, since they were the two who killed them. As I thought back and forth about how to change things, how to save them, I suddenly felt another stress headache coming on. So I finished my tea, feeling it burn all the way down my throat, before heading back upstairs into my room.

Once I made it back into the room, I walked over and took a quick bath. Something that I knew I wouldn't get to do much once we got on our way. Then I changed out of the clothes that I had been wearing for the day and back into the clothes that I had come to Middle Earth in. Just for some familiar comfort. There was something nice about being in there just for a little while. I curled up on my bed after lighting the lantern on the bedside table and pulled out my journal to write something new to Harley.

Harley,

Today we are at the Green Dragon Inn. I think it's in a town called Bywater. That's what the dwarves told me, after all. Traveling today wasn't half-bad. I liked being on horseback for the day. It's been a long time since I rode one. Bilbo joined the company of course, and I won the bet, of course. It was very funny to watch Thorin's reaction.

Tonight I have a room to myself. We'll be traveling for a few days. I had a wrestling match with Fili tonight for the rest of the dwarves to see. They seemed to find it very funny when I won. I did warn Fili that I would, but he clearly didn't believe me, which only made the whole thing even funnier. You would have loved watching when everyone but Gandalf and Kili lost the bet that Fili would win.

Kili have me another archery lesson today. Oh, Harley, we were standing so close together! I don't think that I even realized how close together we were until the other dwarves came out to see us. He's adorable. And confident. Far too confident for someone who's only an inch or two taller than me. But he pulls it off.

I won't get a chance to send these letters, but they make me feel better. I hope that you're okay. I hope Mom and Dad are okay. Take care of yourself and take care of them.

Love you, kid,  
Leah.

Not long after finishing my letter to Harley, I curled up underneath the blankets and went out like a light. I didn't even doubt for a moment that I would wake up still in Middle Earth. Just like I had been thinking, I did. When there was a knock on the door in the morning, I realized that it was Balin coming to wake me up. I called out to him that I would be ready in a moment. I changed just my socks - throwing on what I had been wearing yesterday - before heading downstairs and joining the company.

In the morning I was very quiet as I had my tea. Much quieter than the rest of the dwarves, who seemed a little more relaxed in the morning. Thankfully I had a little bit of caffeine to help wake me up as I ate my breakfast, which was good, because I was starving. I was going to manage to build up quite the appetite being around the dwarves. I noticed that everyone was smiling at me. They must not have been used to a woman eating like me. But with my heavy workouts, I was used to eating a lot.

Once we had all finished eating, we got on our way. The weather was lovely as it was just the very beginning of May, so it was nice to be traveling on laden ponies. Bilbo was now wearing a dark-green hood (a little weather-stained) and a dark-green cloak that he borrowed from Dwalin. They were too large for him, and he looked rather comical. He had mentioned that his only comfort was he couldn't be mistaken for a dwarf, as he had no beard.

We weren't riding very long when Gandalf rode up very splendidly on a white horse. He had mentioned to us to ride ahead. He had brought a lot of pocket-handkerchiefs, and a new pipe and tobacco. After that the party went along very merrily, and we told stories or sang songs as we rode forward all day, except of course when we stopped for meals. Something that seemed to greatly take a toll on Bilbo. He was used to multiple meals, but still he soon began to feel that adventures were not so bad after all.

It was relieving to see how happy he was. Of course, he might not feel that way during a battle with Stone Giants, a troll attack, or an Orc raid. But I tried to beat back those thoughts for the time being. Instead I found myself genuinely enjoying my time with the company. I told them slightly altered stories of my childhood and really didn't mind answering the many questions that the company asked me about my life. They were never rude, but sometimes they did seem a little standoffish.

As the days passed I found my comfortable place in the lineup. The ponies frequently moved back and forth but we almost always kept ourselves near the people who we were the closest with. For most of the time I rode in between Fili and Kili, but I also spent a lot of time with Gandalf and Bilbo. Which wasn't surprising, since they were some of the only people who genuinely liked me, even beyond when I was fist-fighting with Fili. I also spent some time with Bofur, who was very pleasant to speak with.

Much of my evenings were spent doing archery training with Kili. He was very good and had really helped me improve. I also had fun spending a few minutes each evening teaching the dwarves to fight the way that I did. They weren't very good with it, but they had gotten reasonably good with blocking punches and more effectively taking each other down. It was a good trade between all of us. Thorin and Balin never participated with us, but they usually would come and watch.

For the first week and a half after we left the Shire, we stayed mostly in inns. There were a few that I remembered us staying in. We stayed at the Bridge Inn, which was in Buckland. Afterwards we stayed at the Floating Log, which was in Frogmorton. We had come up on the Foresaken Inn afterwards, although we had only been able to sleep in the ruins. Then we had moved on to the Golden Perch Inn, the Ivy Bush, and the Prancing Pony. That had been my favorite, since it was from Lord of the Rings.

At first when we traveled, we had passed through hobbit-lands, a wide respectable country inhabited by decent folk, with good roads, an inn or two, and now and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling by on business. They were all very sweet people who I genuinely appreciated getting to speak with. Then we came to lands where people spoke strangely - even more so than I had already been experiencing - and sang songs that even Bilbo had never heard before.

Once we left the areas with the inns, far out into the woods where everyone slept off of the road, we started having to camp. It was the first time that I had really camped out in the middle of the woods with the company. I was never given the night shift, just in case something actually attacked, although everyone doubted that we needed one. These were still relatively safe lands. But just in case something did happen, we always had someone on watch.

At night I would usually sleep towards the fire that we would keep burning. Mostly because it would get quite chilly at night. We usually were underneath large piles of stone or crushed in between the thick trees. The dwarves were very loud when they slept - mostly with snoring - but I managed it. I usually would sleep between Kili and Fili. It was a place of comfort for me, in the daytime and at night. I enjoyed sleeping there, even though I never actually touched them.

Although there was one problem. One night, just a few days into our camping trip, I did wake up halfway through the night to find myself sleeping on Kili's shoulder. I wasn't sure how that had happened. But I knew how it ended. I had spotted Thorin glaring at me and I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to roll over in my sleep. No one had ever spoken about it. Some nights Kili would offer me his cloak but I always denied it, knowing that Thorin was keeping an eye on us.

By now - almost two weeks after we had left the Shire - we had gone on far into the Lone-Lands as the company told me that they were called, where there were no people left, no inns, and the roads grew steadily worse. I was glad that I didn't have to walk, but even riding was getting hard. Not far ahead were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with trees. On some of them were old castles with an evil look, as if they had been built by wicked people. It made me slightly nervous.

Everything seemed gloomy, for the weather on our fourteenth day of travel had taken a nasty turn. It wasn’t raining quite yet, but it was getting cold and very cloudy. The rain was likely going to start very soon. Mostly it had been as good as May could be, as the dwarves told me that the weather normally wasn't that nice in May in the Shire, but now it was cold and wet. In the Lone-Lands we had been obliged to camp when we could, but at least it had been dry. Now it was soaking.

We were traveling in the middle of the day - one of the now rare moments that we weren't soaking wet from the never-ending rain - when something dawned on me. I realized with a hint of horror that we were probably coming up on the troll attack. The next part of the movie that I could remember was the discussion of the other wizards in the rain and then the troll attack. It would be happening at some point over the next few weeks. My first real test here in Middle Earth.


	6. Chapter Six

Since we had hit our two week point in the journey, a few more days had passed. Not that anyone mentioned the milestone. We would be traveling for quite some time. Two weeks was nothing compared to how long we would be out here. In the meantime we had started passing some cliffs that looked like they might have turned into mountains eventually. I could see the peaks of the actual mountains in the far-off distance. I was growing nervous, as I knew that the troll attack must have been coming soon.

The problem with having only been a minor fan of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series was that I didn't know them well. It did seem to be running off of the movies, which was good, since I knew them better. What was the next landmark from the movie that I could remember? I didn't know it that well. It had been a number of years since I'd seen the film. But I did remember that Balin would tell us the story of Thorin's defeat of Azog at the battle near... Moria, was it? Something like that.

Currently we were riding through more of the seemingly never-ending forest. The path that we were traveling on was clear and I relished in it. I hated the bumpy paths and constant winding in and out of the trees that we had been doing lately. I was sitting on Misty's back with my knees curled up to my chest. It was a precarious position that I was putting myself in, but I had been doing it for the past few days and I hadn't fallen yet. Plus I trusted Fili or Kili to manage to catch me if I started to fall.

As everyone else chattered back and forth - somehow still eating, even after our large breakfast - I was scribbling in my journal. My flask of tea was propped in between my knees. I thought about writing another letter to Harley, but instead I was trying to draw the landscape. I didn't want anyone to see my letters to Harley and question them. My landscape drawing wasn't terrible, but it was nowhere near as good as the practically professional drawings that Ori could do. I really wanted him to teach me.

But I wasn't sure how to bring it about. I could tell that Ori was still a little nervous around me, so I was trying to warm him up to teaching me. Just the way that I was trying to warm up Dwalin to teach me to sword fight. So far that venture hadn't been going very well. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Ori was drawing something. Curious as to what it was, I dropped my feet and shifted Misty forward a little bit by tightening my thighs around her. We were friendly enough that I didn't think I was intruding.

"What are you drawing?" I asked, coming up to his side.

Clearly I had surprised Ori, as he almost dropped his journal. He managed to catch it at the last moment before gently closing it. "It's a... portrait," Ori said bashfully.

"Of?" I goaded.

"You," Ori said, still bashfully.

My lips turned up in a small smile. "Can I see it?" I asked excitedly.

I'd always wanted someone to do a portrait of me. A good one, at least. Ori looked a little bit surprised at my request. "You want to see it?" Ori asked.

"I would love to see all of them if you would let me one day," I said honestly.

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"You - You won't laugh?" Ori stuttered.

"I wouldn't dare," I said seriously. "You're more than welcome to see mine, but they're laughable."

I handed over the landscape drawing that I had just been doing. Ori looked down at the page and smiled. "Actually, they're quite good for a beginner."

"Beginner," I laughed.

Ori's face fell. "I didn't - didn't mean that as - as an insult."

"I get it, Ori. Honestly. They're pretty awful," I said, holding up a hand to stop him.

"I could help you."

"You would do that?" I asked, glad that he had brought it up so that I didn't have to.

"I would love to. If you would like me to, of course," Ori added shyly.

"Please! Now show me yours," I said, giving him my hand.

"Here you are."

Ori still looked the slightest bit embarrassed, but I didn't really care. I wanted to see what he had been constantly drawing since starting the journey. Ori opened the journal and turned it back a few pages before handing it to me. I smiled as I looked down at the drawing. It was of me, just the way that he had said. I was sitting by the fire one night. My bow was laid across my lap and I appeared to be sharpening my arrows. I smiled even brighter when I realized that it was just from the other night.

It was a funny night. We hadn't really done much, as it had been a rather demure day. Everyone had just been working silently. I was sharpening arrowheads at Kili's insistence. He had been telling me that there was a good chance that I would start making better shots if the arrowheads were a little bit sharper. I had been doing it after nightfall and had been working hard to ignore the scathing glares that Thorin had been sending my way. He really didn't like me.

Likely never would. Not even if I managed to save his life. In the portrait I could see that there was a ghost of a smile on my face. I could remember that Kili was messing with me for most of the night. Just as he usually did. I realized suddenly that Ori must have been watching the two of us interact, at least, for that night. I blushed as I stared down at the drawing, wondering if anyone else had been watching us lately. Had any of them been noticing that we frequently spoke and kind of flirted? Hopefully not.

"Can I look through the rest?" I asked, my fingers lingering to flip the next page.

"Of course. You are in the next three or four," Ori said.

"Thanks."

That definitely made me happy. He was so talented that I didn't care what the drawings were of. I just wanted to see them. So I grabbed the edge of the page and turned it. The next drawing was also of me. It was just as good as the first one. I was sitting up on Misty's back, drawing in my own journal. My hair was being blown back by the wind. I remembered that night well. We had slept in so we had ended up riding later into the evening. There was a small smile on my face, as I had been lost in my own thought.

After staring at the page for a long while, I turned it again to look at the next one. Like Ori had said, it was still another one of my drawings. This time we were inside one of the inns. It looked like it was the Green Dragon Inn. I was sitting at a wooden table with the rest of the company. We were all laughing and singing; I could remember teaching them a few songs that I knew. I looked quite happy in the drawing. I was sitting in between Kili and Fili. Bofur was leaning behind me with his arms thrown over my shoulders.

My part of the drawing was definitely the largest. I smiled down at it before turning the page again to see what the next drawing was. This time it was almost all of me. I was using my bow and arrows for training. Kili was standing right behind me. One of his hands were over my own hand - positioning my hold correctly - and the other was on my shoulders. I could tell from the drawing that he was trying to get me to relax. My own features were very focused while Kili was grinning down at me.

Even Ori had been able to pick up on it... That strange relationship between the two of us... I blushed softly as I turned the page again. I let out a soft laugh when I realized that it was of Kili and me fighting that day in the inn. I had Kili pressed underneath me with my legs placed over his throat - keeping him firmly locked there. It was rather funny that Ori would have drawn that particular portrait, where I was making him look stupid. It must have made an impression on him.

As I started flipping through the pages a little faster, I realized that every five or so pages were dedicated to an individual person of the company. It seemed that Ori was currently working on Gandalf's section. They were quite detailed - more than anyone else's, except maybe mine. Each portrait was done the way that Ori saw us. It was rather interesting. I loved it. At the end of the journal was the written story of what had been happening with us. There was a good description of my fight with Fili and Kili at the tavern.

"These are really wonderful, Ori," I said, closing the journal and handing it back to him.

Ori blushed softly. "Thank you, Leah. I'm glad that you like them."

"I wish that I could draw like this."

"I would be happy to teach you."

"That would be a long lesson," I teased.

Despite not being the worst artist in the world, I was definitely nowhere near as good as he was. "You aren't that bad. You have the makings to be a good artist," Ori said.

"Thank you," I said sweetly.

A moment later another pony came up to my side. I turned back and smiled at Fili. "Ah... You can do portraits of us," Fili teased, motioning back to where Kili was riding.

"Trust me, I would make yours as unflattering as possible," I teased.

"There is no way that you could ever make a portrait after me hideous," Fili said, tossing his hair back off of his shoulders.

Snorting loudly, I rolled my eyes. "We'll see about that," I said.

Fili's face dropped as he scowled at me. The others - those who had been listening, at least - started to laugh. I rolled my eyes at them again. They were cute. All family, constantly teasing each other, always happy when one of them was being made fun of. It was the way that I wished my own family had been. I giggled at Fili's incoherent mumbles as I drove Misty up to the front of the group. I fell into line with Bilbo, who had previously been riding next to Gandalf, who headed off to ride with Thorin.

"How are you doing, Bilbo?" I asked.

Bilbo shifted uncomfortably on top of Myrtle. "A little uncomfortable, honestly," Bilbo said.

"Me, too. I've ridden a few horses before but I've never been on one for this long. I'm more used to -" I had been speaking quickly but my voice immediately dropped off when I remembered that cars didn't exist here. Driving would make no sense to him. Bilbo gave me a sidelong stare. "Walking, I guess," I muttered dumbly.

"At least you have made friends with the others," Bilbo pointed out.

"Not all of them," I mumbled.

"More than me," Bilbo said.

Had I? I had always felt that Bilbo might have been slightly better liked by them than I was. "I wouldn't bet on that. I actually think a lot of the dwarves like you. They just won't say anything for fear of what Thorin might say to them. Most of the dwarves just tolerate me," I said honestly.

"Well I like you," Bilbo said, smiling at me.

"I like you, too." We rode in silence for a while before I picked up my journal, perched myself precariously on Misty's back again, and flipped the pages open. "Hey, smile for me," I said, looking up to Bilbo.

"Smile?" Bilbo asked confusedly.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to try and draw you and I don't want you looking like you're pouting. I want to draw you with a smile. Go on," I said seriously. Bilbo stared at me for a moment before shaking his head in amusement, but he smiled anyways. "There you go. Perfect. Hey, Ori! Come here and help me out, yeah?"

Ori rode his pony up towards us and came to my other side. "Of course. Ready to get started?" Ori asked, leaning towards me.

"Absolutely," I said happily.

Thankfully no one bothered me as Ori taught me exactly how to draw a person. It was much more difficult than drawing a landscape. Not that it surprised me. I had known that it would be tough. We ended up spending almost an hour drawing Bilbo up on Myrtle's back. It was good that Bilbo remained relatively still. I could see the dwarves occasionally striding past on their own ponies to see what I was doing. They were curious to see my drawing. I was almost curious to see how it would end up.

Our lesson had gone on for almost two hours before I decided that it was as good as it was going to get. So I placed the quill in my bag and laid out the journal on my lap. Ori was smiling down at it as Bilbo tried to lean in and see it. It wasn't half-bad for my first portrait of someone. But it was definitely nowhere near as good as Ori could do. Bilbo's profile was a little too narrow, his eyes were slightly slanted, his nose was a little too upturned, and his hair was too puffy. But I could definitely tell that it was Bilbo.

"What do you think?" I asked bashfully.

"It's actually quite good," Ori said.

"Really?" I asked.

"For a first time," Ori corrected himself.

Snorting under my breath, I nodded. "That's better." I grabbed the journal and handed it over to Bilbo. "What do you think, Bilbo?" I asked.

Bilbo stared down at the journal and smiled. "I think it captures my best qualities."

"I'm glad that you like it. I'd say that you can have it, but you can't. Not until I make a better one, at least," I said, snatching the journal back and closing it.

"I'll be counting on it," Bilbo said.

We rode in silence for a little while before a thought occurred to me. "Hey, Thorin?" I called out softly.

Thorin turned his steely gaze back to me. "Yes?"

"When are we stopping?" I asked.

Thorin looked up at the sun. "About another hour or so."

"Thanks."

"Did you need something?" Thorin asked me.

"Just hoping for a place to take a bath. I saw a lake back there," I commented.

Thorin slowed down the pony that he was riding on. Everyone else slowed behind him. "That's not a bad idea," Thorin said, almost regretfully, since it was my idea. "We break here for the day!"

It was fine by me, since my ass was officially numb from the long day of riding. I really wanted a bath, too, since I hadn't had one since the last inn that we had stayed at. We all headed our ponies off of the path and began tying them up to the trees. I knotted Misty's tie before heading back around the campfire that Gloin had started. I laid out my things where they usually went, right next to where Fili and Kili were setting up for the night. I was halfway done with my bedroll when Fili walked off to help with dinner.

Between Kili and myself, we were quickly able to place everything else out. Fili had left his things only half-unpacked. I grabbed a few spare clothes and laid them out at the base of the bedroll. No matter what, I would be changing today. I'd been in these clothes for at least four days. Gross... I smiled at Kili as I tucked my journal back into my pack. I didn't want anyone else to see it, as the letters to Harley would give away who I was and what I was doing here.

Once I was finally done gathering all of my things, I glanced around to see who I could ask to stay with me while I bathed. I didn't want to be attacked by an Orc or something. What if I was in the middle of the lake when something came for me? I didn't want to have to worry about taking a knife or my bow into the water with me, where I could potentially lose it. I didn't feel comfortable asking most of the dwarves to do it, and I doubted that they wanted me to ask. Bilbo was busy speaking with Gandalf.

The only person who seemed free that I knew I trusted was Kili. Awkward... "Hey, Kili," I called, slinking over to him.

"Yes?" Kili asked, glancing up.

"Would you mind helping me out?"

"Of course. What do you need?"

Kili placed down his things and I felt my face heat up. Come on! You've done far worse than ask a guy to keep watch while you bathed. "Well... It might be a little awkward. I was going to go and wash off in the river but I don't know these woods around here. I don't really know what's out here. I just thought that it would be a good idea to have someone come and..." I trailed off awkwardly.

"Keep watch?" Kili put together.

I nodded bashfully. "Yeah. Would you mind terribly?" I asked.

"Of course not. Are you ready?"

"Just give me a second to get my things together."

Honestly I was just glad that he didn't say no. "All right," Kili said.

It was going to be awkward. I was sure about that. Hopefully he just didn't make things weird, because I knew that there was a chance that I would. I darted around my side of the campsite to try and get together all of my things. Unfortunately I only had minimal hygiene products. A homemade bar of soap, a bristled wooden stick that somewhat resembled a toothbrush, mixture of herbs that was like toothpaste, and a perfume made of flower oils with herbs and spices mixed in. That was everything that I had.

It definitely wasn't even close to how cute I could have looked if I had my shampoo, conditioner, face wash, razor, and everything else that I had become so accustomed to using. That would have been much nicer. But I supposed that it wasn't too bad like this. I did feel a little bit awkward to have to have someone stand guard while I bathed, but I knew that it was important. The lake was a little ways out into the woods. There was a chance that something could be dangerous out there.

"I'm ready," I said, gathering my things.

Kili turned to me and smiled, pulling his arrow quiver over his shoulder. "Shall we?" he asked.

"Yes." I was about to turn towards the woods when I remembered something. I whipped back towards the camp. "Oh, I should warn them to give us some time," I said.

"They know. No one will come and bother you," Kili said, putting an arm out to stop me.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

We started heading towards the lake in silence. It felt heavier than it normally did. "Is anyone going to stand guard when you're all bathing?" I asked, just for the sake of conversation. But I quickly realized that he could have thought that I meant that I wanted to stand guard. Idiot! Tease him! "Or do you not think that you need a bath?"

Kili grinned. "What? I don't smell good?"

Before I got the chance to answer, Kili playfully reached over and grabbed me. I started laughing loudly as he pulled me into him and wrapped an arm over my shoulder, keeping my head pressed against his upper chest. Giggling softly, I tried to push myself away from him. He actually didn't smell that terrible - which was good, considering that I normally slept almost pressed up against him. But he definitely smelled like he hadn't bathed in the past few days. I blushed as how close he was to me.

He didn't let go of me. He merely kept his arm across my shoulders. "Gross!" I cried, pushing him off of me. He grinned as I tried to push back my blush. "You could be worse, but you definitely need a bath. Although I do, too."

"You need a bath worse than I do," Kili teased.

"Shut up!" I barked, affronted.

We both laughed as we walked up to the edge of the lake, which was more of a river. The two of us stopped and stood awkwardly together for a moment. "I'll... I'll stand guard. Keep my back turned. Let me know when I'm safe to turn back around," Kili said.

"Okay."

The moment that he said it, he turned back away from me. For a second I hesitated. Do it, moron! He's not looking and it's not like you've never had a guy see you naked. So I listened to myself and started stripping my clothing off. At first I leaned down and started soaking my clothes to wash the mud, dirt, and sweat off of them. There was no laundry detergent or anything like that, so I just had to make due with rinsing them. I felt very awkward kneeling down with Kili just mere feet away from me.

From time to time I would glance back to ensure that he wasn't sneaking a peek. I wasn't sure if I would have been offended or slightly appreciative that he wanted to see me. It didn't matter. I knew that he wouldn't dare look at me while I was in any state of dress that wasn't fully-dressed. That was the way that men were in Middle Earth. Literally every other man that I knew in the old world would have. Even if I barked at them not to. It was only part of why I liked him so much. He was different.

"Talk to me," I finally said, breaking the silence.

"What?" Kili asked, still not turning back to me.

"I hate this silence. It feels weird. Talk to me."

"I'll talk to you when you're done."

Snorting under my breath, I realized just how prudish they really were in Middle Earth. They couldn't even stand guard while I was bathing. Facing the other way. Kili probably would have been about in his mid-twenties in human years. In the normal world, there was almost a one hundred percent chance that he would have slept with someone by now. He likely hadn't in this world and likely wouldn't until he got married. If I can save him... I supposed that I did miss a little bit of the modern ways that I was used to.

"What? Is it improper to talk to me while I'm bathing?" I teased, trying to break my train of thought.

Kili shifted slightly, his gaze running the wood line. "In all honesty, I probably shouldn't even be here while you are bathing. It's just a precaution," Kili explained.

Feeling almost like I was trying to help along someone having their first time, I took a deep breath and tried to think or something to make him more comfortable. What could we talk about that wouldn't remind him that I was naked, just a few feet away? It took me a long while to come up with something. But then I remembered what had happened. Many nights that we laid out - usually when he was on watch and I couldn't sleep - he would talk to me about the night sky. Something that I'd always found amazing.

"Just pretend that we're... laying out... watching the stars," I said slowly, thinking of those nights.

We didn't have to even talk about the stars. We could just pretend. I could practically see the smile in Kili's stance. "Is the water cold?" he asked, scanning the woods again.

"I'll let you know."

While I had been thinking, I had been washing my clothes repeatedly. I really had been lingering around for too long. So I dipped my toes in the water, sitting on the edge of the grass, before pushing off and diving under. It was definitely cold. Clearly it hadn't been warm out here in a long time. I dipped myself under, reveling in the feeling of the cold water. I wasn't overly fond of the cold, but I did love getting to clean myself off a little bit. Eventually I popped out of the water and the icy blast of air hit my skin.

"Whoa! It's definitely cold. Refreshing though," I said honestly.

"I will look forward to my bath later, then."

"So will I. Having to sleep so close to you," I teased.

Even from the distance that we were at, I heard him snort. "You could sleep on the other side of the camp tonight," he offered.

Hoping that he wasn't serious with his offer, I started scrubbing off the built-up sweat and dirt. "Nah... I'm comfortable where I am." There was a brief silence as I continued working over my arms. "Tell me a story," I eventually said.

"About?"

"Anything. A memory. We're supposed to be watching the stars, so... tell me something about them."

For a while Kili just stood there. "I saw a fire moon once," Kili finally said.

My heart jolted slightly in my stomach. A small smile formed on the corners of my lips as I ran the soap through my hair. It was the same story that he had told Tauriel when they had been trapped down in the dungeons of Mirkwood. But it was just a story. He would fall in love with her in time. And his love for her is exactly what will kill him. Something that I would have to stop. Knowing that I had been silent for too long, I cleared my throat.

"What's a fire moon?" I asked, honestly unsure of what it was.

"They're beautiful. The moon will be a brilliant orange and then fade to a muted yellow the higher it climbs in the sky. I'm not sure what makes it turn that color, but it's one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen."

"One of?"

"One of," Kili confirmed.

What were the others? "Will you tell me the rest?" I asked.

"One day."

I could hear the smirk in his voice. Rolling my eyes, I started squeezing out the suds. "Tell me about the fire moon," I goaded.

"It rose over the pass near Dunland. Huge. Red and gold, it was. It filled the sky. We were an escort for some merchants from Ered Luin."

"You and Fili?"

"Yes. It was one of the earlier times that we were allowed out together. Just the two of us. They were trading in silver-work for furs. We took the Greenway south, keeping the mountain to our left." He didn't realize it, but I honestly had no clue what he was talking about. I went along with it anyways. "And then it appeared. This huge fire moon... lighting our path."

"It sounds beautiful," I said truthfully.

"It was."

We didn't have anything like that back home. Not that I had seen, at least. "I wish that I could have seen it."

"I wish I could show you. I'll have to keep an eye out for one."

"Will you show me when you see one?"

"You're the first person I'll come to."

My cheeks started burning again. Just like they did every time that he said something slightly sweet to me. I was such a big baby. Maybe it was just because I wasn't used to the romance that they had in Middle Earth. I was used to guys offering to buy me drinks in a bar, hoping to get me drunk enough to go home with them. This was different. This was better. Kili must have known that he had made me slightly embarrassed, because he laughed and walked sideways to observe another angle of the woods.

He was very careful not to sidestep and accidentally look right towards where I was splashing around in the water. I was overly grateful that the water was cold and that we weren't facing each other right now. I dipped back into the chilled water to try and get rid of the seemingly permanent blush on my face. I felt ridiculous for thinking that he might have liked me. It was just a damned story, which I had asked him to tell. He had told Tauriel without prompt. It was her that he would fall in love with. Not me.

Deciding that I had been in here long enough - and knowing that the others wanted to bathe - I forced myself up onto the bank. "Okay... I'm gonna get up and dry off and change and then we can go," I called out.

"All right."

It was very easy to quickly slide into my clothes. I hadn't brought as many as I normally would wear. I had learned my lesson by trying to wear both the corset and armor to bed before. Even the arm guard was rather painful to try and wear at night while I was sleeping. I had come to wearing just a shirt and trousers. I slid on a fresh pair of underwear - keeping my damp bra from home on - before pulling on my black trousers. I was just pulling my white tunic over my head when a thought occurred to me.

"Thanks for this, by the way," I said.

"My pleasure." Despite being twenty-one - or had I turned twenty-two by now? - I snorted very childishly. Kili's head shot up. "That's - That's not what I meant," Kili stuttered.

At least he knew enough to know what I was laughing about. "I know. Oh, feels good," I said, tying my hair up and pulling my boots on. "It's been way too long since I took a bath."

"You don't bathe frequently?" Kili teased.

"Ha-ha," I growled, going back to the knots at my chest. "Cute. I bathe all the time back in Rohan. We just don't get the chance to do that so much out here."

"You sound like such a woman."

"Well spotted."

"Trust me, I had spotted."

Obviously he said it before he could stop himself. I was glad to see that I wasn't the only person who did something like that from time to time. I noticed his head shoot upwards. He had clearly surprised himself. My cheeks started to burn as I began to fumble at the laces at the top of my shirt to tighten them and close it over my chest. Finish this before either one of you makes it worse! It was too late. Kili whipped back around with something that sounded like an apology ready, forgetting about my state of dress.

"I didn't mean -"

"Hey!" I interrupted.

That was when Kili's eyes dropped down. They barely flickered to my chest before darting back up to my face. At least he was nice enough to look away. "Oh! I'm sorry!" Kili gasped, whipping back away from me. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. It's not that big of a deal. I'm just tightening the laces. Not like I was naked," I said seriously.

He had made surprised me than anything else. "I was taught that it was very improper to see a woman in any state of undress," Kili said, almost haughtily.

"How prudish," I commented before I could stop myself.

Now isn't this exactly how you just got yourself into this mess? "What?" Kili asked confusedly.

"Nothing!" I gasped, knotting the tie at the front of my chest and darting up to Kili. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go. Thanks for coming out here and keeping me company."

"Of course."

Thankfully as we walked off, neither one of us made it more awkward. "One day I would really like to see that fire moon."

"If I ever see one, you will be the first person that I come to show it to."

"Thanks. I hope that you manage to find one."

"I'll search long and hard for one."

The stupidly romantic part of me had always wanted to watch the stars with someone... Get over it. He doesn't like you. We smiled at each other as I tucked all of my things back into my dirty clothes. I leaned forward and gave Kili a small hug, ignoring the stirring in my gut. As we stayed together, my hair falling out of its hold, Kili wound a finger around my wet hair and squeezed the water out. We pulled apart and walked out of the woods, back to the campsite. By the time we returned, the sun was about to set.

"Kili!" Bombur shouted, distracting the two of us. Kili removed his finger from my strand of hair. "Give us a hand with the plates, will you?"

"All right!" Kili called out before turning back to me. "Mind putting out my bedroll?"

"Not a problem. You're going to make me the biggest plate, right?" I teased.

Kili grinned. "You'll be sick."

"Probably. But it'll be worth it. I can't even count the number of times that I made myself eating chocolate cake," I said seriously.

At least on each one of my birthdays. "Chocolate cake?" Kili asked questioningly, grinning at me.

"It's a weakness," I giggled.

"I'll have to keep that in mind."

It didn't matter who the person was, but if someone gave me a chocolate cake, I was all theirs. Not that I was tell Kili that. Not when it could be misconstrued the completely wrong way. I grinned sideways as Kili walked off and headed to make dinner with Bombur, the two of them instantly launching into a conversation. I headed back towards our side of the camp and kneeled down at Kili's side, unrolling his bedroll for him. Once I was done there, I headed over to help Fili rearrange his things.

Somehow he had already managed to spread all of his things out. He had more of... everything than anyone else in the company. "You make such a mess," I complained, moving around his clothes.

"They're only my things!" Fili barked.

"How many things do you have?"

"The necessities."

"Which are?"

"Weapons."

Fili had enough weapons to supply each member of the company and then have some leftover. "I don't think you have quite enough," I teased, handing him a small knife.

"You can never have too much protection, my lady," Fili teased.

Just like with Kili before, I snorted. Not that he knew what I was snorting about. My laughter at things that sounded so mundane to them earned me some strange looks pretty frequently. Now was one of those moments. I smiled at Fili and waved him off. No need to have to have that talk with them. That was their mother's job.

"Yes, I suppose that's true," I commented.

"Fili! Leah! Come get your dinner," Bombur called.

The two of us got to our feet and headed over towards the rest of the company. I accepted a bowl of stew gratefully. "Thanks, Bombur. Looks good," I said.

"Thank you, my dear," Bombur said.

Once I had gotten my food, I headed back to my side of the camp with Fili and Kili and instantly dove into my dinner. As usual, I was the last person done. While I ate, the dwarves ran off to bathe, leaving me with only Gandalf. The two of us sat together and ate as we listened to them have a blast together. I could hear their laughter and cheers even from the camp. I almost wanted to see what was happening, but that would have definitely been inappropriate.

It didn't take long for Bilbo to return, promising that I wasn't missing anything. So I merely smiled and grabbed myself a second helping, since the others weren't around to eat it. I really had been starving all day. We'd had a large breakfast, but that was it. We hadn't stopped for lunch. Thorin had wanted us to keep going. That was likely why he had allowed us to stop for the night so early. It was also the reason that I had finally been able to bathe. Something that I had really been looking forward to.

Dinner for the night was over within the hour, once the dwarves finally returned back to the campsite, still laughing but smelling and looking a lot better. It was kind of funny seeing some of them without their braids. I had to admit, since their clothing was clinging to them from the water, my eyes did linger on Kili for a while. As the night wore on, I eventually laid back and started sketching the mountains in the distance. They were beautiful and I knew that I couldn't even start to capture their magnificence.

But I was trying and my drawings were getting better. As I was shading the mountain, a hand laid itself on my shoulder. "Good drawing," Kili complimented.

He took a seat at my side and I smiled. "Oh, it's terrible. But I'm working on it. Ori's been a good help," I said.

"It's actually not that bad. It's better than anything that I could do."

"Bad artist?"

"Worse than you."

"That's not hard."

We sat together for a while when Kili offered me a hand. I stared at him confusedly. "Ready to practice?" Kili questioned.

Of course... Practice. We were supposed to be practicing archery. "Damn. I almost forgot about that," I groaned.

It would have been nice to sit and not do anything for the evening. Kili laughed. "I'm not letting you get out of it. Come on. Up. Time to get to work," he goaded.

"Alright, pushy," I teased.

He was still grinning down at me. Kili laughed at my wording as I got up and gathered my things. My bow and arrows. Kili had taken me out and spent an hour practicing with me every day since starting the journey. We had only missed one session when one night Thorin had deemed the part of the woods that we were in as dangerous. We had traveled all throughout the night. I slung by bow and quiver back over my shoulder and nodded at Kili.

The two of us headed off into the trees, staying close enough to the company so that the fire was still illuminating the trees. "So what are we doing today, boss?" I asked, stopping about ten feet from the closest tree.

"Moving targets."

"Moving?"

I definitely wasn't good with moving targets quite yet. "Yes. Don't worry. I have the utmost faith in you," Kili said.

"Really?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes, Leah. You have been steadily improving. I think that you're ready to start firing on moving targets."

"But what are we using for moving targets?"

"Made some of these."

Stepping back slightly, I watched as Kili dug into his pocket and pulled out some wadded up rocks. They had moss pulled over them that would let an arrowhead catch on them. It was the same kind of trick that we had used the first time that Kili had made me work with moving targets. I hadn't been good then and I wasn't confident that I could do it now.

"We saw how terrible I was with these last time I tried," I commented.

"That was a few weeks ago. You've improved by now."

"Think so?"

"I know so. Come on. Shoot."

"You're just doing this to make me look stupid," I complained.

"Stop complaining. Fire," Kili said.

Despite his voice sounding stern, he was smiling at me. "Alright. I'm ready."

Nervous that I was going to make myself look stupid - which I was so very good at in front of him - I nocked my arrow and placed it back in the notch. I pulled back the string and hesitated. He would throw in a moment and he threw damn hard. It was hard to match his speed. I tried to watch Kili out of the corner of my eyes to see where and when he was planning on throwing the rock. But he noticed where my eyes were and he barked at me to watch the sky.

Irritable, I rolled my eyes, but I did it anyways. I knew what he was telling me to watch the sky for. I wasn't always going to get the chance to see where my attacker would come from or when. It would be a surprise, just like it was going to be right now. It took a few seconds for Kili to finally rear back and throw the rock. I spotted it out of the corner of my eyes, turning slightly when I heard his grunt, and fired when it was heading straight for me. I ended up missing the rock by a few inches.

Some part of me had been hopeful, but I couldn't be surprised about what had happened. I turned back to Kili, slightly disgruntled. "See?" I asked sadly.

"You're trying to watch me and the rock at the same time. Focus on the sky. Breathe. Remember what I taught you," Kili said helpfully.

"Okay."

"Deep breath. Take it in from the bottom of your stomach."

It was the same advice that he was always giving me. Relax and breathe deeply. Kili put the rocks back in his pocket before walking over to me and placing a hand on my lower stomach. His other hand went behind my back, pressing his hands together against my spine and my stomach. It made my legs go slightly weak. My entire body tensed - which was the opposite of what I wanted - as I turned my head back to look at him. Realizing that I was supposed to be listening to his orders, I took a deep breath.

The two of us were staring right at each other. "Better?" I whispered, my voice weak.

"Perfect," Kili whispered, his voice just as weak as mine. He cleared his throat after a moment, backing away but not dropping his hands. Instantly it became much easier to breathe. "One more time, yeah?"

"Okay."

"Think of a happy memory. Think of someone you want to make proud."

"Okay."

Who was there that I wanted to impress? I hesitated as I thought about it. I definitely wanted to impress Kili. He was my teacher here and I might have had a little (major) crush on him. But there was someone else. Someone even more important. Someone who was more important than anyone else would ever be. Kili very slowly removed his hands from my stomach, sliding his hands across my thin tunic. I shivered under his touch and nodded.

As he stepped back to stand a few feet away, I didn't bother to look up at him. I didn't want to look at him. He would only distract me even more. Instead I turned and looked up at the sky. I tried to picture my person who I wanted to make proud, watching and cheering for me. I waited for a few moments for him to throw the rock. Then I spotted it. The rock came flying out of the corner of my eyes and I turned on my heel, firing the arrow. It shot into the center of the rock and both came down to the ground.

The rock and arrow dropped just a few feet away. "It worked," I said breathlessly.

Kili smiled and walked back over to me. "Look at that. I told you that you could do it," Kili said.

"You were right. As much as I hate to admit it," I grumbled.

Kili grinned again. "You have good aim."

"Thank you. You're still a good teacher."

"Ready for another?"

"Do I really have a choice?" I asked playfully.

"No," Kili said seriously.

We both stared at each other with straight faces for a moment. It only lasted a few seconds before we started laughing. Kili gently shoved me forward as the two of us started firing. We exchanged tossing the rocks and firing. Within minutes I had emptied my quiver, taking a brief break to refill the arrows and start the process of shooting them all over again. Kili took a few minutes to show me some better ways to shoot as I continuously fired my arrows, now working with the trees.

He was rearranging my grip, fixing my stance, and showing me ways to move more fluidly. I knew that the fact that my movements were jerky was the main reason that I still had some issues with shooting. Once we had worked on that, I was almost surprised by my improvement. But even without that, I was almost surprised by how much I had improved in only a little over two weeks. Much of it was because Kili had spent so much time working with me and being patient - a quality that I certainly didn't have.

Almost an hour passed before Kili offered up a chance to show me what I was used to calling trick shots. They were certainly shots that I would never be able to pull off. At least, not for a while. They looked very hard. He was able to slide past on his knees and still make perfect shots. I was able to follow the motions that he was showing me - having already been very flexible and strong from being both an MMA fighter and doing stunt fighting with the kids.

My only problem was the fact that I couldn't actually make the shots. But I could pretty easily follow his movements. Kili was almost surprised at my skill. I just had to work on aim. After a while I stopped firing and took a break to watch him. He was quite good. He looked so at east with the bow. I almost wished that I was back in my old world so that he would be wearing a tighter shirt and I could actually see the muscles in his arms and back work. Maybe some of the old world wasn't too bad...

"You look so comfortable with the bow," I commented, trying to distract myself.

"Like the way that you look when you fight," Kili said, firing another perfect shot.

"Do I?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. Like you were born to do it. Your fighting skills are impressive, they are."

"Thank you."

Trust me, the wrestling goes past just the outdoors. I smirked at my thoughts before awkwardly clearing my throat and forgetting about it. "Were you always good with fighting? Or did you get better with practice?" Kili asked, stopping shooting.

He placed his bow back over his shoulders before heading over to the rock that I had perched myself on. "In a way, I was a natural. There were some things that I was good at. But there were other things that I needed a lot of practice with. You're a natural, though," I said.

"Am I?"

"Yes. I've seen it when we fought together."

"How many times have we fought?"

"Just the once... In the tavern, I think."

We sat in silence for a moment. "Fight me," Kili said suddenly.

"What?" I asked, stunned.

"Fight me," Kili repeated.

"Why?" I questioned.

"To show you that there's no shame in taking some time to learn a new skill. Just like you're taking the time to teach me to fight, you have to take the time to build up skill with your bow."

"Okay."

Despite having fought with him before, I was almost nervous. We both set down our bows and arrows, taking off our boots, and turning to face each other. He definitely wouldn't have appreciated it if I had fought him with the boots on. They would have hit him painfully. I gathered my hair in my hands - tying it up - before heading into the center of the clearing that we had been working in. Kili stood across from me, a few feet back, and got down into fighting position.

As per usual, that was Kili's fatal flaw. Getting down into fighting position only helped me. I sprinted up to him and used one of his bent knees as a step. I turned as I stood on his knee and placed my hands on his shoulders, swinging my other leg over his other shoulder. As I swung so that I was back facing in front of him, I leaned downwards. Kili's hands went to my thighs to try and pry me off, but I flipped him over me as I landed on my hands and knees, instantly turning on all fours to face him again.

It took Kili shorter than usual to get back to his feet. He made a move to kick out at me, but I was one step ahead. I grabbed his ankle and shoved it back down. He made to hit me in the face but I was easily able to catch his wrist. Pulling it down with me, I used my other hand to do a one-handed cartwheel. As I rolled the two of us over, I placed one foot over Kili's chest and used it to pin him underneath me as we rolled to a stop. I removed my other foot a moment later and jammed it over his neck, pinning him.

His arm was caught by my own hands. Knowing that he had no other move, Kili jammed an elbow back into my stomach. I gasped for air, accidentally releasing him. I'll be damned. Kili jumped off of me as I kicked back up to my feet. Irked by his movements, Kili ran after me and raised a knee to kick me in the stomach. But I was faster. I grabbed his arm and used his strength as leverage. I placed one shin against Kili's stomach as I jumped up, wrapping my other leg back around his neck.

I rolled back to the floor as Kili was thrown over me again. The momentum sent him sprawling back against the grass. He quickly scrambled back to his feet as I rolled back to a stand. Running after Kili again, I ran sideways against him. I grabbed his arm that was towards me and rolled over his back. Kili tried to grab me as I rolled to his other shoulder and laid my legs in front of it. I grabbed onto the collar of his tunic and fell forward, throwing him roughly away from me as I landed back on my knees.

Kili went sprawling through the grass as I stood back upright. Kili was much slower getting up this time. I assumed that he was getting tired. "I can't believe how fast you are," Kili said breathlessly.

"It took me a long time to get here. Trust me," I said.

"It is quite amazing."

"Thank you." As Kili walked back over to me, I took a seat on the rock again, trying to catch my breath. "The stars are nice tonight," I commented quietly.

Kili sat down with me, glancing up. "That one is Menelmacar."

His hand was motioned out straight over me. I'd never known much about stars, but I knew a little bit. I was positive that I had never heard of Menelmacar. As I saw the stars that he was pointing to, I realized that I knew that one. It was Orion, the star that was named after a hunter in Greek mythology. What did I remember about it? Its brightest stars were Rigel and Betelgeuse, a blue-white and a red super-giant, respectively. Apparently I did pay attention in my astronomy class...

"Oh. Orion!" I chirped excitedly.

"Pardon?" Kili asked.

"Orion. That's what it's called back in Rohan. It's one of the few constellations that I ever knew," I said, somewhat honestly.

"See? You do know something about the stars," Kili teased.

He was right about that. But I still didn't know much about Middle Earth. I pretty much only knew about what I remembered from the films and book, neither of which were really that much. I knew about the stars back home - that just so happened to have been the same here. That made me smile. It was rather interesting that the stars in Middle Earth were the same as the ones back home. It did make me feel slightly better; like I might have actually been back home. Or that I wasn't that far away.

"Are we done for the night?" I asked.

"It's getting late. It will be hard to see soon. We should head back," Kili said.

"Finally!" I chirped excitedly, jumping to my feet.

"Am I that awful?" Kili teased.

"No. I am that tired," I shot back.

We both smiled as we got to our feet. Kili helped me grab everything of mine to drag it back to camp. We placed our bows and arrows over our backs and headed back to the campsite. Everyone was sitting around and talking, seeing as it was still early evening. I joined in on a few of the conversations, but most of them were in Khuzdul so that I couldn't understand them. Instead I sat and talked with Bilbo, who was also usually ignored by the rest of the company.

It meant that we spent both nights speaking to each other. The rest of the company always had each other to speak to. At least Fili and Kili would sometimes bring us into the conversation. We ended up having a good evening talking to each other. Bilbo spent a long time telling me about his childhood while I told him all about my schooling. Of course, I'd had to alter a number of details about it. I also mentioned how archery practice was going and how I had been teaching Kili to fight.

As the night progressed, it was obvious enough to see that Bilbo was very interested to hear how things were going with Kili. At first I thought he meant training, but he clearly meant something else. I rolled my eyes so far back into my head that I thought that they were going to get stuck there. I hadn't bothered making it very discreet that I had a crush on Kili. I wasn't used to, coming from my world. Crushes weren't exactly a secretive thing back home, at least once you were out of middle school.

The crush thing was no big deal back home. But clearly it was a very big deal here. Especially since there were only a limited number of us around each other all of the time. I was definitely embarrassed that Bilbo knew. Although I was convinced that not everyone knew. I had a feeling that it was only him, Gandalf, and maybe Thorin who knew. The others were clearly clueless. Which was good, as was aforementioned that we all basically lived together.

As the night wore on, the night watch started and everyone headed off to bed, pretty quickly falling asleep. Balin was on the night watch tonight. I said goodnight to Bilbo and went to sleep in between Fili and Kili as normal, trying desperately to ignore the looks that I was getting from Bilbo. I managed to doze off for a little while, but it wasn't long before I woke up to find that I had been sleeping on Kili's forearm. Oops... Not again... I gently rolled off of him and stared up at the sky. At Orion.

Unfortunately I couldn't fall asleep again. No matter how hard I tried. It was almost impossible for me to fall asleep once I had woken up. It always had been. So I just watched the clouds roll overhead. Nothing I did helped. Counting sheep, closing my eyes, or counting backwards from one hundred. So I eventually got to my feet, intent on practicing archery on a few trees. I found that I was actually too antsy to sleep tonight. I figured that I could just stay close enough for the trees to be illuminated by the fire.

Just a few feet from the trees, Balin's voice startled me. "Are you alright, lassie?"

Jumping back slightly, I covered my chest with me hand. I turned back to him and smiled. "Can't sleep. I was just going to use one of the trees for target practice," I explained.

"Why don't you come and join me?" Balin offered, patting the rock he was sitting on.

"Okay."

"How are you adjusting, lassie?"

Awkwardly taking a seat, I shifted towards Balin. He was one of the dwarves that I pretty rarely spoke to. "I'm alright. I really like being out here. It's fun. The company - even though sometimes I get the feeling that you all don't like me very much - has kind of become like family," I said as honestly as possible.

"Well we are glad to hear that," Balin said.

"Are you?" I asked somewhat snappily, much worse than I had meant to. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. It was rude. I just - I get the feeling that most of you don't like me very much."

Balin sat in silence for a while, just looking at me. "It isn't that we don't like you. You're an outsider in this company. Just as Mr. Baggins is. It will take some time for us to adjust to having you around," Balin explained.

"And it doesn't help that I'm a woman?"

"To be blunt, not particularly."

"But I can handle myself."

"As we have seen so far. But we haven't seen any real battles," Balin pointed out.

Unfortunately he was right. I had only proven myself during training. But the trolls would be coming soon enough. "Not yet. Just you wait," I said determinedly.

There was a small lapse of silence. I was perfectly content with it. Balin didn't make me nervous. Not really. I wasn't completely comfortable being around him, since he didn't seem that fond of me, but he didn't really make me nervous. Not the way that Thorin and Dwalin did. Now they definitely made me nervous. I glanced up at the stars and leaned back slightly, perfectly content with the evening air. At least it finally wasn't raining. It would have been even nicer if the dwarves would stop snoring.

"There are members that have seemed to adjust to your presence quickly," Balin said, finally breaking the silence.

"A few, I suppose," I mumbled.

"Ori, Bilbo, Gandalf, Bofur, Fili, and Kili."

Where is this going? "They've been quite nice for me to have around," I said blandly.

"It's good for them to have someone new to speak to, as well."

"Don't get many travelers in Ered Luin?"

That was all that I could assume. They had mostly only ever known each other and the other dwarves. "It's very closed-off. We mostly have to travel outside of the settlement to trade," Balin explained.

"At least everyone knows each other," I said.

Another brief silence lapsed. "Might I comment on something?"

"Sure."

"You don't seem to know much about the history here," Balin said. Well that would be because this isn't my history. This is something from books and movies. "Not dwarfish history, which isn't surprising. We aren't your race. But you don't know much about the history of mankind either."

That's not fair. I know about my version of mankind's history. "No... I don't. I didn't learn much about... anything, I guess. I know how to fight. That's it," I muttered dumbly.

"Would you care to learn?" Balin offered.

"History lesson... Might put me to sleep. Go for it," I teased nonchalantly.

Balin smiled, to my surprise. It might have actually been nice to learn something about the place that was becoming my home. "In the early days of Arda after the fall of the Two Lamps, the Blue Mountains were formed as the Valar widened the Great Sea and thrust Middle Earth eastward to protect Valinor," Balin began.

"The Blue Mountains. That's where you live, right?"

"Correct."

"What are the Two Lamps? And what's Valinor?" I asked dumbly.

"The Two Lamps refer to Illuin, the lamp which formerly stood at the northern end of Arda and Ormal, which stood at the southern end of Arda," Balin explained.

"What were they?"

"Pillars. They brought light to the world for the Valar."

"And Arda is?"

"The world, dear," Balin explained, chuckling softly.

My face lit up bright red. I couldn't believe that I was so stupid that I didn't even know that one. "Of course. That was stupid. Sorry," I muttered quickly, hoping that he wouldn't comment on my slip-up. "What's Valinor?"

"It is the home of the Valar," Balin explained. I didn't ask, but I was relatively sure that the Valar were the god-people who had brought me here. Right? "It is located in the middle of Aman, in the tropical and subtropical latitudes."

"Makes sense. Sort of."

"The Blue Mountains lined up with the Grey Mountains of the southlands, forming the western wall of Arda. These two ranges lay parallel to the Red Mountains in the northeast and Yellow Mountains in the southeast that formed the eastern wall. At their northern end, a narrow gap separated the Blue Mountains from the Iron Mountains, which stretched across the entire north of Middle Earth."

"That's where the Blue Mountains are?"

"Yes." Another small silence lapsed. I sat stupidly. I'd definitely made myself look like a real fool today. "You really don't know much about Middle Earth lore," Balin commented.

"What can I say? My parents taught me to fight. They weren't teaching me to be a theologian," I said lowly.

"I understand," Balin said, nodding slowly.

"Do you like the Blue Mountains?" I asked.

Balin had been one of the people who had lived in Erebor before the attack, from what I could remember. "It is a place that we managed to find a home in. It most definitely is not Erebor. Our real home. But it has been good for us to settle there. It's the only home that Fili, Kili, and Ori have ever known," Balin explained.

So the younger ones were the only ones that hadn't grown up in Erebor. "But they've grown up on stories of Erebor," I said.

"Precisely why they are here."

"Are you excited to go home?"

"Will you be? When this is over?"

Would I be excited? I would get to see my friends and Harley again. I would see my parents. Although the conversation with Brian might be strange. And I would miss everyone here. "Yes. And no. Mostly yes," I said awkwardly, thinking of a warm shower.

"Exactly," Balin said.

The corners of my lips turned upwards. "Can I ask you something?"

"Certainly."

"Do you like me?" I asked curiously, unsure of whether or not I really wanted to know the answer.

Balin waited for a few moments in silence. A silence that I took as a no. "As a person, yes. Leah, I do believe that you are a good person. I believe that you are of some use in our quest. But you must understand that I do not always believe that the wilderness is a place for women," Balin reasoned.

"I'll prove you wrong, Balin," I said determinedly.

"If it means anything, I hope that you do."

"Thank you."

Another small silence passed. I twirled an arrow around in my fingers. "How are you enjoying the journey?" Balin asked.

I'd certainly like it a lot more if there were showers and actual beds along the way. "It's interesting. It's nice to be out exploring the world. To be honest, I've also really enjoyed seeing the rest of your friends and family. Despite everything, they've been quite nice to me," I said.

The dwarves weren't really rude, they just weren't overly inviting. "We don't mean to be rude. We have always simply been..." Balin trailed off, looking for the right word.

"Reclusive?" I offered.

"Yes. I suppose that's a good word for it."

"So can I expect the company to start liking me more soon?"

"Prove yourself during what is sure to be the first attack."

"Attack?"

How did he know about the attack? I was the only one that was supposed to know... "There are dangerous creatures that roam the roads. It is sure to be so long before we see some of them," Balin said, not entirely unkindly.

"Lovely thoughts before bedtime," I teased.

Balin grinned slightly. "We will protect you."

"I don't need it. I appreciate it, but I don't need it."

"I certainly hope that is the truth."

The night began to wear on as I watched the clouds move throughout the sky. Suddenly I couldn't stop myself from speaking. "You saw the attack on the mountain all those years ago, didn't you?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What do you remember about it?" I asked. The moment that I said it, I realized how rude it was. "I'm so sorry, I had no right to ask you that. It was rude."

Balin waved me off. "That's alright, my dear. In the Third Age 2770, Smaug came from the mountains in the north, drawn by great wealth amassed by the Lonely Mountain. Gold, gemstones, silver, pearls, the many-faceted crystals of emerald, sapphire and diamond, and the Arkenstone. He took the mountain, killing many dwarves inside it. Thror and Thrain used the secret door to escape, and the dragon continued ravaging the surrounding countryside for a... long time. The screams and flames never ended.

"For two centuries, Smaug has ruled the Lonely Mountain uncontested, lying within the great treasure hoard of the Lonely Mountain and ensuring that no one entered the mountain in an attempt to steal from him. The surrounding domain became a scarred wasteland known to everyone as the Desolation of Smaug," Balin explained.

In a movie, it was just something fun to watch. But here it was real life. They had actually lost their homes and many people had lost their lives. "That must have been horrible," I finally said.

"It was."

"I'm truly sorry."

"It's why we are on our way back to Erebor now. This has gone on long enough. It is time for us to return to our home and reclaim what Smaug once stole from us," Balin said.

"Do you know how old he is?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. No one is. But he is an ancient force. Wise and cruel. Strong and powerful. Very deadly."

If only you could see the video of Benedict Cumberbatch walking around in a motion capture suit doing the Smaug performance. "Are you trying to keep me from going into the mountain?" I reasoned slowly.

"I'm trying to warn you of what you will be facing in Erebor."

Trust me, I know exactly what I'm facing. "I'm not afraid, Balin. And I am determined to help you get back your home," I said.

"We do thank you for that."

There was no need to actually thank me. I didn't really have a choice for being here. I was going to be here one way or another so I might as well do something useful. The two of us sat together in silence for a while as I leaned back and looked up at the stars again. They were so beautiful tonight. And I kept looking at Menelmacar. Orion... I realized that Balin was giving me a scrutinizing stare as I looked up at the sky. When I looked towards him, he still didn't look away.

"You think that I'm hiding something," I said, realizing what that look was for.

"Yes. I do. We all do," Balin said, not bothering to try and hide the truth.

"Like?"

"We aren't sure. Would you like to tell me?"

"No," I said quickly.

There was a good chance that none of them would ever trust me if I told him the truth of my secret. "You don't deny that you are hiding something," Balin said.

"I think everyone hides something," I reasoned.

Balin nodded somewhat blankly. "Is your secret dangerous?"

Was it dangerous? That wasn't an answer that I knew. It probably wasn't one that I would know until after the Battle of the Five Armies. "I'm not sure. I think that it's going to be one of two things. It could either be very dangerous for me, or it could help everyone here. Let's hope for the latter, shall we?" I offered.

"Is anyone aware of this secret?" Balin asked.

"Gandalf. So I suppose that you can trust me. You trust him, after all."

"I do genuinely hope that you can prove us wrong and be of some use."

"I think that I might be of more use than you think."

"I would like to hope that is the truth."

"Thank you for the chat, Balin," I said, getting to my feet.

My thoughts were getting a little jumbled. I needed to go to bed. "Thank you for the company, dear," Balin said.

"My pleasure."

The last thing that I needed right now was to get tripped up on my own words. I didn't want to accidentally reveal what my secret was. That would have been a nightmare. Getting my secret spilled before even having been on the journey for a few weeks. They would never trust me. And I couldn't have them knowing the truth. They would start doing things differently and then I wouldn't be able to expect anything that was coming. I just had to go along with whatever they said.

Once I had tightened the laces on my boots, I stood up and headed back over to my side of the camp. I dropped down in between Fili and Kili and took my spot in between them. It was a little hard to squeeze between them, since they were sleeping so close, but I managed to wiggle in there. At least neither one of them snored. They breathed a little heavily, but that was it. I pulled my blanket up over my chest and rolled onto my side, just as I usually did. I couldn't sleep on my back to look up at the stars.

It didn't help that I still couldn't get to sleep. Even after my chat with Balin and after the hours had passed throughout the night. Now there was something else keeping me awake. The fear that Balin knew that something was up with me. Evidently they all knew that something was up with me. But I couldn't tell them what my truth was. Gandalf had already instructed me to not tell anyone, as it would be dangerous if they knew the truth. I let out a puff of breath irritably, accidentally waking up Kili.

Unfortunately he didn't just shift. I really had woken him up. Kili's eyes very slowly peeled open as he woke up. He was usually a heavier sleeper. I hadn't been expecting him to wake up that easily. I blushed softly and smiled, very softly apologizing for waking him up. I didn't want anyone else to wake up because I was being loud. Kili didn't say anything back. He merely smiled and reached over to his other side. He grabbed something before leaning back towards me and placing his cloak over me.

He must have known that I was having a problem getting to sleep tonight. Every now and again it was tough for me to get to sleep. I accidentally shifted closer to him underneath the cloak, but it didn't seem to bother him. To my surprise, he reached and stretched his arm towards me. I shifted over a couple of inches so that I could sleep on his arm. Neither one of us bothered pulling away tonight. As I started to fall asleep, I could feel his fingers gently running through my hair.

As the days passed, it became slightly easier to sleep again. But that only lasted so long. Four days after my conversation with Balin came the day that I had been dreading for weeks. There came the day that I hated every single year. I tried to push off the day, but eventually it dawned. I couldn't fight the sun. As I rose in the morning, I didn't say anything. Not even a good morning. I was silent for most of the day, only exchanging a word where required. I could see all of the strange looks being passed around.

Not that I really looked at them. My eyes were focused on some fixed point in the distance, a deadened glaze in them. It was clear enough to see that the company was worried about me. I could hear them muttering quickly in Khuzdul, looking over at me every few minutes. They had never known me to be quiet like this. I was almost always chattering excitedly back and forth with the rest of the company. But not today. Because the worst memory of my life always surfaced today.

Thankfully I managed to not cry, despite wanting to so desperately. But I couldn't. Not with them around. Fili and Kili tried more than once to get me to chat during the day, but I just brushed them off as sweetly as I could. By the time that we settled down for the night, I had exchanged less than ten words with the company throughout the day. I could tell how concerned the few people who I was friends with were about me. Actually, it seemed like everyone was concerned about my well-being today.

But I couldn't bring myself to speak with them. Not about anything irrelevant or about why I was acting the way that I was. Perhaps later. Not right now. As the sun was setting, we headed slightly off of the path to find a place to camp. I took my food quietly, thanking Bombur as softly as I ever head, before heading off to sit by myself with my meal a little ways out into the woods. It was untouched even an hour later. I just glanced up at the stars and sighed shakily.

It took me far too long to realize that I was crying. At least I had waited until I could get away from the rest of the company. I sobbed softly - knowing that I had to get it out - and reached up to brush the tears out of my eyes. When it was time to go to bed and get back with the rest of the company, I couldn't be crying. They didn't need to know that I was upset and I really didn't want to look like a sniveling little girl in front of the tough men.

"You haven't eaten," Kili's voice came.

I stiffened slightly, instantly brushing the years out of my eyes. But it was too late. He'd likely already heard me. "Oh... Not really hungry, I guess," I muttered.

"May I sit?" Kili asked, walking up to my side.

"Sure."

"Bad day?"

"How could you tell?"

Kili's lips turned upwards in a small smile. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Did I want to talk about it? It wasn't something that I had ever talked about before. Not in a long time. "Can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Of course."

"How much do you love your brother?"

Obviously I had surprised him. "Well that wasn't the question that I was expecting," Kili teased. We both smiled at each other. "I love Fili more than anything. He is my brother. Family. I don't know what I would do without him. Not only is he my best friend, he is the one person that knows everything about me."

"That's how I feel about Harley. My sister," I said.

"Why did you ask?"

"I have a brother," I spit out.

Kili's gaze shot to me. "I - I didn't know that," he stuttered.

"Yeah... I don't tell many people."

"Are you two not close?"

"No. We used to be extremely close."

"Did something happen?" Kili asked.

It was very obvious that he was trying to be careful and not upset me. But it was far too late for that. "Yeah. He died," I said.

Kili's face paled as he tripped over his words. "Oh... Oh, Leah... I'm so sorry," Kili said, looking in between hugging me and keeping his distance. "I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't. I didn't tell you. I don't tell anyone about him. Today is the anniversary of his death. It's a tough day for me. It always has been," I whispered softly.

This was always a day that I had spent alone. It wasn't really a choice this year. Kili reached over and placed a hand on my knee. "Do you want to talk about it?" he offered.

"I've never talked about it with anyone."

"You don't have to."

"Do you mind listening?"

"I'm always here to listen," Kili said sweetly.

"His name was Robert. Robbie," I said, a bitter smile creeping across my lips.

"Robbie. That's cute," Kili said.

"Yeah. He was adorable. He was the middle child. I'm the oldest. When I was three, Robbie was born. When I was five, Harley was born. Story starts when I was seven, I suppose. Robbie was about to turn four. Just a few days shy. Harley was about to turn two. She had her first bought of sickness," I said.

"What was wrong with her?"

Her coughing and hacking had been awful. I remembered fearing for her, but the doctors had promised that she would be fine. "Just the flu. Dangerous for an infant, but she managed. It was bad at the time. I remember that my mother and father were taking care of her. She was taking up most of their time," I said.

"What about you and Robbie?"

"Well I was seven. As long as my parents were in the house, they were mostly relying on me to keep Robbie safe and entertained. They said to just shout if there was an issue. Robbie was such a sweetheart. They knew that he wouldn't be the problem."

Turned out that they were very wrong. "Tell me about him."

"He looked like me. Harley looks a little bit like me, but she actually looks more like our father. I look more like my mother. So did Robbie. He had little tuft of blonde hair that curled just a little bit. Bright blue eyes. Handsome kid, he really was. We used to tease him that he was going to be a real heart-breaker when he grew up. I used to tease him all the time. He was my favorite in the family. Even though you're not supposed to have favorites," I said, earning a smile from Kili.

"Everyone has a favorite," he pointed out.

"That's true. I remember the two of us were running around the house. We were bored. It was raining. We couldn't go outside. So we decided to play hide-and-seek inside the house. My mother and father were telling us just to not get in their way. I promised that we would be quiet and avoid Harley's room. It wasn't good to have more kids around her while she was so sick. So the two of us stuck to the hallways and main rooms.

"Hide-and-seek was one of our favorite games. Robbie was surprisingly fast for such a little kid. I swear, he could run on all fours. Easily outstrip me. He was always easy to find. It was catching him that was hard. So I searched the house for a while. Downstairs was empty. Kitchen, living room, foyer, and dining room. So I went and tried upstairs. Searched through my bedroom, my parents', and then the bathroom. Still empty. I couldn't find him.

"Until I heard it. A little sneeze. I knew that I had him. So I very carefully crept towards the window. That was when he sprang out from behind the curtain and blew right past me. I was so surprised that I fell back. But I managed to get up pretty quickly. He was just darting around the corner when I managed to sprint after him. We ran straight into my bedroom. I had him cornered back on the bed. I thought that I would get him right there. But he was smarter than me, even that young.

"He picked up this snow globe that I had. Made out of glass. He tossed it right towards me and I panicked to catch it. Just as I did, he sprinted past me. I remember yelling after him, 'Get over here, you little booger!' My parents were shouting at us to be quiet. So we just started to giggle, neither one of us planning to stop. We never did. Not when my parents were yelling at us. Not when we were getting in trouble for running through our neighbor's yards.

"For a moment I caught up to Robbie. We were just about to the landing for the stairs. I grabbed Robbie around the waist and he started laughing, wiggling around to try and get out of my grasp. He was so squirmy that I couldn't hold onto him. I dropped him. He recovered before I could. All of a sudden he was back on his feet, dashing around the corner, and headed down the stairs. That was when it happened. I never even saw it. I just heard it. His gasp. A loud thud followed by some smaller ones. Then a crack.

"At first I thought that it was a joke. I thought that he was trying to lure me around the corner to jump out and scare me. So I waited. Five seconds. Ten. Fifteen. Still nothing. That was when I realized that it wasn't a joke. If it was, it definitely wasn't a good one. So I ran off and darted around the corner. There he was. Laying right at the bottom of the stairs. Splayed out. Not moving. His leg bent at an odd angle. My heart was pounding. I prayed that it was just a broken leg.

"Fearing the worst, I sprinted down the stairs and fell right at his side. At first I thought that he had just slipped. Maybe he was just in too much pain to stand or had knocked himself out. But he wasn't. It was something much worse. Blood was pooling around his head. I tried to shake him, just in the way that you should never shake an injured person. He wouldn't wake up. No matter how much I begged or how much I pleaded. His chest was rising and falling, but he wasn't waking up.

"Next thing I knew, I was grabbing him and dragging him away from the stairs. I rolled him onto his stomach to see what the problem was. His head... His skull was dented. I could already see it. Blood was soaking his blonde hair. It was bad. I knew that just by looking at him. I was screaming at him, begging him to wake up, telling him that I would get our mother and father and everything would be fine. I was so determined that he would be fine. It would just be a bad memory.

"My parents were yelling at us to be quiet again. They were mad now, I could hear it. But I didn't care. The only thing that I cared about was that Robbie was hurt. So I started screaming for them at the top of my lungs. They must have realized that something was wrong because they came thundering down the stairs. When they got to the landing, I saw that Harley wasn't with them. She was still upstairs. I was about to tell them what happened when they saw Robbie.

"Even now, after all these years, I can still hear her scream. My mother. She dropped to her knees while my father grabbed me, shoving me away. They did the same thing - tried to wake him up - while they called for the doctor. We brought him to the doctor's home." Really we had called the ambulance and they had brought him to the hospital. "I remember sitting out in the waiting room with Harley. I was terrified to have her in my arms. I had already hurt my baby brother. What was I going to do to my baby sister?

"But my parents were going through something much worse. So I just held her and waited. An hour passed. Two. Three. Eventually I fell asleep out there. My grandmother came to watch Harley and take her back to her home. But I wouldn't. I refused. So I stayed. I sat there all night before my parents came out to tell me what the doctors had told them. Robbie had taken a hard impact on the stairs. From the way that he had landed, it had been the back of his skull - the softest part - to take the brunt of his weight.

"As young as I was, I knew what it meant. I knew that it meant danger. That was what the doctor told us. We were going to just sit there and wait it out. They kept him as comfortable as possible." They had really placed him of life support. "But the damage had been done. The only thing that we could do was wait until he woke up. We would know how extensive the damage was. We would be able to see just how bad things were. But that was only if he woke up. If he did. But he didn't.

"Days passed. Days turned to weeks. It didn't get better. They were convinced that, even if he woke up, he would be... different. A problem. A huge problem. He would have had issues doing the simplest of tasks. They managed enough tests to know that his brain function wasn't normal anymore. He would have been useless for the rest of his life. But he clung onto life. I cried day and night. I wanted them to wake him up or for him to do it himself. But he couldn't and they wouldn't.

"They waited five weeks. Five weeks that he just sat there. Suspended in life and motion. Then one day the doctors told them that it wasn't any use anymore. To keep him alive, I mean. So they told us to say our goodbyes. I went in and I apologized to him, over and over again. I couldn't stop. My mother and father had to drag me, kicking and screaming from the room. Five minutes passed and then it was over. He was gone. I couldn't change anything, no matter how much I wanted to.

"My mother didn't move from her bed for weeks. My father barely spoke to anyone. The only thing that motivated them was Harley. She kept them up and moving around. They looked horrible. I felt horrible. They kept telling me that it wasn't my fault. That I hadn't done anything. It was just an accident. But I could still see it. Every time that they looked at me, I saw it in their eyes. The blame. I knew that they blamed me for his death. I knew that we would never go back to normal.

"Everyone in our part of Rohan knew what had happened. We could barely look at the stairs without seeing what had happened. We were sick of the apologies. So we got up and left. Headed to the other side of Rohan. When we got there, we started lying about our family. They just said that it was me and Harley. No brother. Eventually things started to go back to normal. My parents got happier. I finally learned to be a little kid again. Taking on responsibilities with Harley. My parents started trusting me again.

"But it didn't change what had happened. It didn't change that Robbie was gone. But I never spoke about it. Harley was too young to remember him. My parents didn't want Harley to know about Robbie. So I didn't tell her. She doesn't know that we have another sibling. No one in the new side of town knew about Robbie. They just knew that we had moved there. We didn't say anything about him or why we moved. We just... forgot. But I never did. Not really. I always remembered him.

"He was so funny. He could swing around like he was a monkey, even though he was only five. I called him Bobo. I'm not really sure why. It just seemed to fit. When I was old enough, I got a tattoo for him." I reached down and pulled up the side of the oversized tunic to show Kili my hipbone. He looked the slightest bit uncomfortable, but said nothing. "Bobo. A monkey above for his swinging," I said, looking at the dark ink that marred my flesh.

Kili smiled softly as he looked down at it. The tattoo had been my first and my favorite. The monkey was almost cartoonish, but that was because he loved cartoons. We used to watch Sunday morning cartoons. Bobo was written in small block-letters. There was a good chance that Robbie would have loved it. Kili gently placed his fingertips against the inked skin. I didn't shiver under his touch. It was a different feeling today. I merely smiled sadly and brushed the tears out of my eyes.

"Don't usually see tattoos on women," Kili said.

"They're pretty common in Rohan. I just... I had to have a way to remember him. I used to always carry him on my hip. So that's where I put the tattoo," I explained.

"That's really lovely, Leah. I think Robbie would have liked it."

"I like to think that he would be proud of me. Just the way that I know that I would have been proud of him."

"He would be. He is. He is watching you."

That was what I used to tell myself. That Robbie could look down at me and smile when he saw what I was doing. Maybe not at everything that I did, but most things. I liked to think that he would have been particularly proud of me if he could see me right now. He would have thought that this was amazing. He would have been cheering for his big sister all the way. Kili leaned forward and brushed the hair back off of my forehead.

"Thank you," I whispered.

It surprised me just how much I really did want to talk to him about it. At least, how much I wanted to talk to someone about it. My parents wouldn't and Harley couldn't. I sniffled softly and leaned in to hug him. Kili instantly wrapped his arms around my waist. One of his arms was on the back of my neck. He let me press my forehead into his shoulder. I could see Thorin walking over to come and speak with us, but upon seeing my tears, to my surprise, he merely walked away and left us to ourselves.

A long silence passed before Kili spoke again. "I'm very sorry about your brother," Kili said softly.

To my surprise, he still hadn't pulled away. It was definitely comforting. "It's okay. I mean, it's not okay. This is what I'm doing for him. Because I know that he would have loved this. He would have wanted to help too," I said.

"I would have liked to meet him," Kili said.

I finally pulled out of the hug. "I think that he would have liked you," I said honestly.

"Would he?"

"He always liked my friends. He liked everyone that watched out for me. He would have liked watching you mess with me."

"I'll mess with you all you like then. For Robbie," Kili teased.

"For Robbie," I added, almost smiling.

"Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me."

"Thank you for listening. I've never spoken to anyone about him. Not Harley. None of my friends. Not even my parents. They didn't want to talk about him. I think it was painful for them," I said, glad to have finally spoken about him.

"I'm here to listen whenever you need to talk about him."

At least there was finally someone to speak with him about. "I think he would have loved all of this. He would have found a dragon fascinating," I said finally.

"I don't think dragons are quite fascinating," Kili said, laughing softly.

"Alright. He would have found the quest fascinating," I corrected.

"Maybe you'll get to see him again one day."

I had never been religious before. But if it meant that I would get to see Robbie again one day, I would have loved that. "I like to think so," I said happily.

"You must miss him terribly."

"I do."

Kili's face had gone slightly pale again. What happened? "I can't even imagine not having Fili in my life. He's my best friend..." I smiled softly and slightly bitterly. Kili realized his mistake almost immediately. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be talking about him to you."

"No, please. I like seeing the two of you together. It reminds me of the way that I was with Robbie," I said honestly.

That was half of the reason that I had always liked them. Because I loved the relationship that they had together. "You're a strong woman. Very few people - children, women - could go through something like that and come out the other side better off for it. But you managed. You are still managing. You always will," Kili said.

His hand reached out to grasp my own. "Thank you for tonight. You've turned the worst night of my year into a surprisingly good one," I said honestly.

"Come and talk whenever you need."

"And if I just want to?"

Kili smiled. "Especially then."

At least I knew that he really wanted to speak with me. Which I appreciated, since I loved speaking with him. The two of us sat together for a while and chatted back and forth. I was glad that he didn't suggest going back to the camp. I still wasn't ready to speak with the others. I told Kili all of the stories that I could remember about my early childhood with Robbie. I loved him more than life itself. And I could tell that Kili liked my stories. He also took some time to tell me about his childhood with Fili.

We ended up spending all night out in the woods, which was quite nice. No one else to worry about. It actually turned out that the two of us fell asleep in the woods together. I fell asleep with my head propped up on Kili's chest. One hand was underneath my waist and the other was propped on his loaded bow. Just in case something attacked us. To my surprise, no one came to get us. They would have known to come after us if they had heard either one of us call to them.

The two of us were woken up in the morning by Thorin and Dwalin. To my surprise, neither one of them mentioned it. They must have been thinking about how upset I was the night before and realized that I had just needed this. No one mentioned that night again. They didn't even ask what had happened. They simply let it go, which was something that I was very grateful for. I had a feeling that Thorin might have had something to do with it. I'd overheard him telling the others to let something go.

Perhaps Thorin was finally coming around to me. In the following days, Kili was good enough to keep his promise not to mention my brother to the rest of the company. I didn't want to have to keep answering questions about him. Only with one person who I would only speak to if I needed it. I did manage to buck up in the next few days. No one actually spoke to me about that day. They just thought that I hadn't been feeling well one day. Especially since I was much better after the next few days.

Three days after the anniversary of Robbie's death, the company stopped and camped for the night near the edge of a cliff. I turned and watched as Gloin slept. Tiny flying insects were getting sucked into his mouth every time he inhaled, and they were expelled when he exhaled. Bilbo watched in disgust as I laughed. Eventually he got up and walked around. Almost everyone else was asleep. Gandalf, Fili, Kili, and I were awake. I stood and watched as Bilbo walked over to his pony and gave her an apple.

He thought that no one was watching, but I definitely was. I got to my feet and followed him over to her. "Hello, girl. That's a good girl. It's our little secret, Myrtle; you must tell no one. Sh, sh," Bilbo goaded, feeding her the apple.

"I do the same thing. Feeding the ponies," I whispered, coming up behind him.

"That makes me feel just the slightest bit better," Bilbo said, turning to me.

"They're cute."

"I must admit that they are."

This was the next part of the story that I could remember. Balin's story about that battle that Thorin had been in, where he had earned the name, Oakenshield. We had finally gotten there. Suddenly a scream ripped through the night air. Both Bilbo and I jumped. I had known that something was coming, but I hadn't thought that it would sound quite that... real. Bilbo grabbed my hand and pulled me after him, back towards Fili and Kili.

"What was that?" Bilbo asked.

"Orcs," Kili answered.

His voice was rather serious, although I noticed that he shifted just slightly closer to me. I dropped onto the rocks with the brothers, who were sitting near the fire, both playing with their pipes. Another scream echoed off in the distance. They seemed much closer than they had been before. It was much scarier than it had been in the film. Thorin - who had been almost asleep - had jerked awake at the word 'Orcs.'

"Are they far?" I asked.

"They sound close enough," Kili said.

"Orcs?" Bilbo asked fearfully.

"Throat cutters. There'll be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them," Fili said.

"They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet; no screams, just lots of blood," Kili added.

They were both being completely serious. Had I not already known that they were joking, I would have been absolutely terrified. I turned towards Kili with a little scowl. The corners of his lips quirked and I rolled my eyes, looking away from him. Bilbo looked away from the brothers in fright. He looked like he was about to pass out. Fili and Kili looked at each other before looking back towards the ground and bursting out into a soft round of laughter.

"You two are terrible," I hissed.

"You think that's funny?" Thorin asked, standing not far from us. Everyone else was awake by now, staring at their leader. "You think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?"

"We didn't mean anything by it," Kili said bashfully.

"No, you didn't. You know nothing of the world," Thorin snapped.

It was just the way that my own parents had spoken to me before. It reminded me of the way that a father would speak to his children when they upset them. It was nice to see that he treated them like sons. Even when it wasn't the nicest part of the job. They didn't have a father. They needed one. For everything. Thorin stalked off to the edge of the cliff and looked out over the valley. Balin stood and walked over to Fili and Kili.

"Don't feel bad. He's just angry," I consoled them.

"Never feels good to have Thorin angry with us," Fili said sadly.

"I'm not so sure that he's angry with you," I said.

"Don't mind him, laddie," Balin said, walking to stand in front of them. "Thorin has more cause than most to hate Orcs. After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf kingdom of Moria. But our enemy had got there first. Moria had been taken by legions of Orcs lead by the most vile of all their race: Azog, the Defiler. The giant Gundabad Orc had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began by beheading the king.

"Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing, taken prisoner or killed, we did not know. We were leaderless. Defeat and death were upon us. That is when I saw him: a young dwarf prince facing down the Pale Orc. He stood alone against this terrible foe, his armor rent... wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield.

"Azog, the Defiler, learned that day that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken. Our forces rallied and drove the orcs back. Our enemy had been defeated. But there was no feast, no song, that night, for our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived. And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call King."

It was such an inspiring story. In reality and right now. Even more so right now. Because he wasn't an actor. He was a real person who had really seen all of that and managed to work it out. He really was a strong man. Thorin was still standing at the edge of the cliff. I looked over at him and got to my feet. He was looking off into the distance. The rest of the company was already awake and staring at Thorin in awe. Thorin turned to look at us before heading back, walking in between us and moving towards the fire.

"But the Pale Orc? What happened to him?" Bilbo asked.

"He slunk back into the hole whence he came. That filth died of his wounds long ago," Thorin snarled.

"What if he didn't?" I asked, unable to stop myself.

"He did. I saw him myself. Last I checked, you did not," Thorin hissed.

The company had gone deathly silent. Why did I have to open my big mouth? "Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean it like that," I said quickly, realizing that I shouldn't have said it like that.

Thorin merely stared at me for a moment before nodding. "Get some rest. All of you. It's late," Thorin ordered.

As he walked off, I turned towards Kili and lowered my head. How could I convince Thorin that Azog wasn't dead before we escaped from Goblin Town? "I really didn't mean it like that," I whispered.

"He knows," Kili said.

"Come on. Before he gets even angrier," Fili suggested.

He placed a hand behind my back and led me away. Thankfully no one mentioned that night again. Thorin seemed to go back to normal pretty quickly, never again mentioning my slip of the tongue. As more days passed, it seemed that we were about to enter June. I was glad that Ori kept track of the days. I couldn't believe that I had already spent such a long time with the dwarves. But I was just started to love them even more. They had been just as nice as ever and some of them were getting even nicer.

One day, just after tea-time, the weather turned horrible again. It was pouring with rain, and had been all day. My hood was dripping into my eyes and my cloak was full of water. Misty was tired and stumbled on stones; the others were too grumpy to talk. Rain must have been getting into my food and all of my dry clothes. I really did wish that I could at least hang around a fireplace with some tea, rather than freezing my ass off out here. I was sure that it wasn't the last time that I would think that.

Still we all jogged on, never turning around or taking any notice of each other. Somewhere behind the grey clouds the sun must have been high in the sky, for it was beginning to get just slightly lighter as we went down into a deep valley with a river at the bottom. Wind started to pick up, and willows along its banks bent and sighed. Fortunately the road went over an ancient stone bridge, for the river, swollen with the rains, came rushing down from the hills and mountains in the north.

It didn't really make much of a difference. We were all soaking wet and miserable. This part of the story I remembered too. Riding through the woods in the soaking wet conditions. Miserable and hungry. I was starving since we hadn't stopped for lunch. We hadn't been able to with the weather. We would just stop for dinner later. Everyone was sloshing through the mud, trying to perk up. It didn't work. Everyone was cold, wet, and looked miserable.

"Here, Mr. Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori asked.

"It is raining, Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another wizard," Gandalf said shortly.

"Are there any?" Bilbo asked.

"What?" Gandalf asked.

"Other wizards?" Bilbo clarified.

"There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman, the White. Then there are the two Blue Wizards; you know, I've quite forgotten their names," Gandalf explained.

"And who is the fifth?" Bilbo asked.

"Well, that would be Radagast, the Brown," Gandalf said.

"Is he a great Wizard or is he... more like you?" Bilbo asked slowly.

Gandalf looked slightly offended. I rode up by Bilbo and whacked him in the arm. "Now that's rude," I said.

His face flushed slightly with embarrassment. "I think he's a very great wizard, in his own way. He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others," Gandalf said. I could definitely understand that one. "He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always evil will look to find a foothold in this world."

We all continued to travel, unable to speak without rainwater filling our mouths. Plus tempers were high and no one wanted to start a fight. It was nearly night when we had finally crossed over the bridge. The wind broke up the grey clouds, and a wandering moon appeared above the hills. Thorin was muttering something about finding a dry patch to sleep. I realized something as we all began looking for a place to sleep for the night. The troll attack was going to be tonight.


	7. Chapter Seven

It didn't take long for my nerves over the upcoming troll attack to become evident to the rest of the dwarves. It was in my actions at every moment of the day as we traveled deeper and deeper into the woods. I knew that when we spotted the ruins of the farm house, it would be that night that the trolls attacked. When that day was would be the new question. It all made me extremely nervous. Especially as I knew that my archery skills would officially be put to the test. Wrestling wouldn't help me here.

Wrestling trolls that were five times my size would be impossible. It had always been hard enough to fight people twice my size. As I tried to beat back thoughts about the trolls - feeling that I would deal with it when we got there - I relaxed between Fili and Kili a little bit. I had been wondering for a long time whether or not I should mention something about the attack to Thorin. Or Gandalf. Just to potentially stop it. But I also couldn't give my secret away to Thorin, who really didn't like me.

Maybe there was the slightest chance that it would be a good idea to say something to Gandalf. He was the one person who knew my secret, after all. He was the only one who would understand that I knew what was coming. Instead of having him run off and leave us to fight the trolls ourselves, maybe I could have him stay and things would end much faster. I really didn't want to have to face off against the trolls if I didn't have to. And I really didn't want to have to spend all night fighting them.

"Are you alright?" Kili asked.

On my other side, Fili rode forward a little bit to ride side-by-side with Bofur. "Yeah," I said distractedly, trying to smile at him. "Yeah, I'm great."

Kili raised a brow at me. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Getting a little sore. Ready to camp out for the night," I said, forcing a smile on my face.

"Ready to train?"

By fighting trolls? Sure. "Every single day I hope that you might forget about your promise to train me," I teased.

Kili grinned again. "How could I ever forget a promise to you?" he asked sweetly. I rolled my eyes playfully. "Also Thorin ordered me to do it."

"Here I thought that you liked spending time with me," I teased.

"Oh, I do enjoy spending time with you."

"For some reason, I feel like that's not completely one hundred percent sincere."

"You think so lowly of me," Kili said, gasping as if I had really hurt his feelings.

"As a matter of fact, I think very highly of you."

A small grin fell over his face. "That is good to hear."

Perhaps I had stroked his ego a little bit too much. He was already way too big-headed. "Watch that head. You'll be starting to sound like me at any given moment," I teased.

"I'm not sure that's such a bad thing."

"Wow... that's quite the compliment."

"Well that's certainly what I was going for."

"Aren't you quite charming?" I asked, trying to blink back my blush.

"I aim to be, Leah."

He was far too charming. Definitely more charming than anyone else that I had ever met. We both chuckled softly as Kili reached over and handed me back my journal. I had been allowing him to flip through the pictures in the back for most of the afternoon. I had just asked him not to read the letters in the front, since he would find out far too much about me if he did. Respectful of my wishes, he had completely ignored the front, focusing only on my drawings.

"These are getting much better," Kili said as I took the journal back and tucked it away.

"You like them?" I asked happily.

Honestly I still thought that they were terrible. Maybe that was because I was comparing them to the ones that Ori did. Kili glanced up at me and smiled. "I do," he said.

And I knew that he was telling me the truth. "Do you have a favorite?" I asked curiously.

"Yes," Kili said immediately.

"Which one?"

"This one," Kili said, extending his hand.

Taking the hint, I reached back into my pack, grabbed the journal, and handed it to him. He grabbed it and instantly flipped to the very back of the journal. I raised a brow. Those were the older ones. They weren't nearly as good as the ones in the middle. I stared at it blankly for a moment as Kili handed me a folded up piece of paper. It was one of my favorites but was also one that I had almost completely forgotten that I had drawn. It was one of the first ones I had done, but it was also one of the best.

My hand gently traced over the edges of the piece of paper. It was the first time in weeks that I had seen it. The drawing was a picture of the company sleeping around a fire. There were the blurry figures of all of the dwarves who had been fast asleep. Only their best and most distinctive features weren't blurry. The only two clear figures were of Kili and me. It was the first night that I had dozed off on his shoulder, which was perfectly documented in the drawing. It was almost romantic-looking in my depiction.

"Oh..." I breathed dumbly. "I almost forgot that I drew that one."

"It's quite lovely," Kili said.

I brushed the hair back off of my forehead as I began to sweat slightly. You look like a damn stalker. "That's, um, a little embarrassing," I grumbled.

Kili raised a brow in confusion. "Why?" he asked.

"I -" How was I supposed to explain that the picture very obviously documented my crush on him? Answer: I wasn't going to. "I don't - I don't know."

"Were you trying to hide it?" Kili asked slowly.

Yes, just as I try to hide my crush on you. "Is it not a little creepy?" I asked carefully.

"No. I think it's beautiful."

A small smile turned up on my lips. "Thank you, Kili."

Men really were so different in Middle Earth. I found myself liking it more and more every day. "If you think that it's a little... creepy, did you say?" I nodded with a little smile. "Would you mind if I keep it?"

My jaw dropped in surprise. "You honestly want it?"

"Yes."

"Sure. I suppose that you can have it."

"Thank you."

Kili folded the picture up again and tucked it into his bag. We rode alongside each other in silence for a little while before I spoke again. "Can I have something in return?"

Kili turned to me with a smile. "When I find something worthy," he responded.

His piercing gaze made me blush softly. "It's a deal," I said.

What was it that he was going to give me? I couldn't even imagine what he would give me as a present. It didn't really matter to me. I was sure that it would be better than the cheap and meaningless presents that every ex-boyfriend had ever given me. Kili gave me a winning smile as the two of us rode together in silence for a little while. I merely eavesdropped on the rest of the dwarves as I wondered what it was that Kili would give me, or if he would actually live up to his promise.

As embarrassing as it was, I really would have loved to get something from Kili. A present that meant something. I had gotten a number of presents from ex-boyfriends throughout the years. When I was a kid, they were mostly valentine's that had been given to the rest of the class as well. My first boyfriend had gotten me a cheap necklace. Even some of the serious ones hadn't given me anything real. They were all either pretty bits of jewelry, a short vacation somewhere, or a cheap dinner.

Nothing was anything that I really cared for. Not even the numerous stuffed animals that exes had won for me. They really meant nothing. But I knew that a present from Kili would have meant something. That was just the kind of person that he was. I had only known him for about a month, but I was really already quite fond of him. Fonder than I ever had been of anyone else. It was strange, but not something that I wanted to give up on anytime soon.

"Perhaps you can teach me how to fight the way that you do tonight?" Kili asked, breaking the silence for the first time in a little while. "While we should otherwise be training you with the bow and arrow?"

Sure, if it weren't for the fact that we'll be battling trolls tonight. But there was something else that had struck me as funny. "You really want to learn?" I asked.

"Aye."

"You'll be the first adult that I've ever trained."

"You only teach children?" Kili asked curiously.

"Mostly kids. I've taught a few teenagers too. But it's usually young girls who come for me to teach. Most of them get enrolled by their parents. We don't want them getting themselves into something where they can end up getting hurt. But if they ever do find themselves in one of those situations... we want them to have no problem getting themselves out."

There was a brief silence that passed in between the two of us. Kili seemed to be lost in his own thoughts for a little while. I said nothing, knowing that my training of the kids in our gym must have sounded a little funny to him. But it was the entire truth. We wanted the girls to know that they were strong enough to defend themselves. They would never need a man. It was getting to be a normal thing in my old world, but here it was like starting from scratch.

"Rohan sounds very..." Kili trailed off, searching for the right word.

"Progressive?" I offered.

Kili glanced over and smiled. "Yes, actually."

"I suppose that it is. At least, compared to places like this."

Another brief silence passed, during which I sharpened the tips of my arrowheads. "Leah," I glanced over at Kili, "I do believe that you are one of the most incredible people that I have ever had the honor to meet."

A monstrous blush filled my face. "You - You don't have to say that," I stuttered.

"I do not lie."

"Thank you, Kili."

"You are welcome."

The blush that was on my face didn't seem to be going away anytime soon. That was exactly why I decided that it was for the best that I stopped talking. So we simply rode side-by-side in silence. I pulled my knees up to my chest - balancing perfectly on Misty - as we rode through the woods. Once my arrows were sharpened, and Kili's, since I had nothing better to do, I then went back to drawing in my journal. This time I started writing, documenting my own feelings on the journey.

As much as I loved writing letters to Harley, I really only did that when I knew that the others wouldn't be able to see me. They couldn't ever realize what I was really doing here. At the moment, I was actually having quite the good time on the journey. But that didn't change the fact that I was terrified of what was going to come when the trolls arrived. I had a bad feeling that I still wasn't ready for that. But there was no time for training tonight. Only fighting.

The only thing that I really knew how to do was wrestle and stunt fight. That was great for fighting against the dwarves. It made them look like fools and made me appear much stronger than I really was. But I wasn't going to be able to wrestle with the trolls. There was no way that wrestling with them was going to work. They were too big. Instead I was going to be forced to fight them with the bow and arrow. I supposed that, if nothing else, I would see how much I had really learned from Kili.

"Can I ask you something?" I said suddenly.

"Anything," Kili said.

It was the right time to say something. "Would you think that I was crazy if I told you that I thought that something bad was coming?" I asked.

Kili raised a brow curiously. "I think that I might call you a little paranoid," Kili said. I snorted under my breath and nudged him slightly. "We are out in the middle of the wilderness with only minimal protection. It would be likely that, at some point, something bad may happen." Uh, try multiple bad things, Kili. "Is there a particular reason that you are asking this?"

Because we're going to be attacked by man-eating trolls soon. "I just get a bad feeling that something's going to happen tonight," I said dumbly.

"Like?" Kili asked.

"I'm not sure," I said quickly, and probably a little too unconvincingly.

Kili reached over and grabbed my hands. "Things are going to be fine, Leah. We are going to be fine. All of us. This isn't the dangerous part of Middle Earth. We are still in relatively heavily-traveled areas," Kili said.

Uh-huh, I'll be sure to remind you of that after we're almost eaten by trolls. "Alright. I'll take your word for it," I mumbled.

"Not to fear, you have me to protect you," Kili said.

"Now I'm not sure if that's reassuring or not," I snorted.

We both laughed softly as we continued about the journey. I very quickly let go of Kili's hands, noticing the way that Thorin, Balin, and Dwalin were staring at me. Clearly they still liked me about as much as they did when they had first met me a month ago. Kili looked the slightest bit confused at my sudden movement, but he didn't question it. He was back to his typically playful swagger within a few seconds.

Despite everything - as happy as I had tried to be - I really did mean that I was terrified of the trolls. They would come very close to almost eating us. Maybe they would eat me. Clearly there was something coming up eventually. They had to be getting close. I wasn't exactly sure where they were, but they weren't that hidden in the movie. They had been relatively easy to find. Hidden in plain sight, I supposed was the best word for it. For now, I tried to relax slightly. I still had a slight chance to avoid them.

As I rode alongside Kili - and Fili, once he had rejoined us - I began to doodle the brothers. They were the focus of a number of my drawings. They simply always had something fun to capture. They were both laughing and striking silly poses for me to recreate. As dumb as they looked, I laughed and drew them anyways. It was kind of fun to make a goofy drawing for once. It wasn't that great, but Ori spent a while trying to help me make it a little bit better.

As the day wore on, I spent some time with the other members of the company. Many of them still didn't like me, but a few of them were willing to at least chat with me. Particularly Bilbo. Besides Fili and Kili, I certainly spent the most time with him. For a while Balin gave me a history lesson - of which I remembered absolutely nothing - that was much appreciated. Perhaps one day it would start making a little more sense. I enjoyed my time with Bofur - drinking his stash of mead - much more.

The company rode well into the early evening. A few times I had leaned down against Misty's mane and drifted off for a few minutes. Now I was watching the sun set. It was slowly sinking under the mountains. I knew that there was going to be a huge problem after it went down, but I couldn't fight the sunset. I just had to keep reminding myself that no one died in the troll attack. Hopefully I wouldn't change that. Eventually I glanced over at Gandalf and rode up alongside him.

He gave me a quick smile that I returned. "Where are we stopping for the night?" I asked curiously.

"Soon enough, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said.

"I said where, not when," I snapped.

"We shall be stopping soon. The sun is beginning to set."

Shifting awkwardly on Misty's back, I thought about what the right thing would be to say. "Maybe we should keep riding for a little while longer," I started dumbly. "I don't think that tonight -"

"Miss Ambrose," Gandalf interrupted, "I must ask that you speak no further."

"But -"

"There can be no altering the path. You must say nothing to Mister's Fili or Kili. This is not a dangerous episode tonight, it is, Miss Ambrose?"

"Well, no... I mean, no one -"

"So we will continue on as planned," Gandalf interrupted again.

"Wait a second," I said sharply. I was trying to save us some trouble. "This really isn't -"

"As you said, there is no real danger for the night," Gandalf said, interrupting me for a third time.

"But we could at least save ourselves some trouble," I pointed out.

Gandalf merely stared at me for a moment before smiling. "It could prove a good adventure. Some training for the future," Gandalf said. I rolled my eyes. If I was this bad with the trolls, how would I feel when it was time for the Battle of the Five Armies? "Not to worry, Miss Ambrose. Leave everything to me."

How could they all be that useless? It was impossible that they could really be that useless. I rolled my eyes at Gandalf again - a habit that would likely never die - as I leaned back slightly on Misty. I could see a few of the others making faces at me. As usual it was Fili and Kili. For a moment I debated on flicking them off. Before I could I realized that they wouldn't understand what the gesture meant. Then I snapped my attention back to Gandalf. Why wasn't he letting me help? I could really help!

That was also when it dawned on me. "So you really don't need me here until the end?" I snapped.

Gandalf turned to me and gave me a fond smile. "I am sure that there will be other moments that it will be important for you to be here," he said, his eyes twinkling slightly.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I snapped.

Gandalf shook his head. "I am not entirely sure yet. But you will see in time," Gandalf said.

One of these days my eyes were going to get stuck in the back of my head from how much I was rolling them around the company. They were so annoying. What was it supposed to mean? That there were going to be other moments in the journey that would be important for me to be around? If not for fighting, what was I supposed to be here for? There was nothing else of importance that I could think that I would be able to change in the matter of... the year and a half or so we would be out here.

"You are completely useless," I groaned.

Gandalf merely sat tall on his white horse. "Come now, Miss Ambrose. Where is your sense of adventure?" Gandalf asked happily.

"Back in a dive bar in Florida where I'm sure that my half-dead body is being pried off of the floor and into one of the hospitals," I groaned lowly, throwing my head back.

"Pardon?" Gandalf asked confusedly.

"Nothing," I mumbled.

As per usual, Gandalf was giving me a strange look. I was used to the entire group staring at me like I had lost my mind. I merely glanced up and blew the long strands of hair out of my face. Although I was starting to believe that I really had managed to get myself stuck in Middle Earth - as I had already been here for about a month - I also wondered if I could have possibly really been in the old world too. Was I on life support at a hospital? I supposed that time would tell.

If I really was on life support and this was a dream, it was definitely my indication to stop drinking. After a little while, I started trying to tie my hair back. If we were really going to be fighting against the trolls later, I wanted to be able to keep my hair out of my face. I spent at least a few minutes trying to replicate a complicated braid that I had seen on a YouTube tutorial a few years ago, but it was quite difficult without a mirror to use. I was bad at braiding anyways.

More than once I had messed up the braid, and there were now a number of knots in my hair. I had only made this even more of a mess. I growled under my breath as I ran my fingers through my hair. Once I had most of the knots out, I went back to the braid. Within five minutes I realized that it was completely useless. Without a mirror, the only thing that I could do was make a side braid - and that still wouldn't be that good.

"Having a problem?" Kili asked, smiling at my frustration.

"I suppose that I'm not a natural with braiding quite yet," I laughed, dropping my hands from my hair.

"Watch," Kili said.

His hands went back to his own hair to show me a braid similar to the one that I had just been doing. His was done within thirty seconds and he had made it look so effortless. A few moments after he had done the braid, he undid his hair and let it run back down his shoulders. I was in between aggravated and impressed. I was a girl. Wasn't I supposed to be the one that was better with hair? At least I was reasonably sure that I was better with eyeliner.

"Well aren't you clever?" I huffed.

"We learn from a young age. You will get better with practice," Kili said.

Firing a bow, braiding my hair, fighting trolls - I was quite useless in Middle Earth. I reached my hands back to attempt the braid again, but I was still useless. A few knots quickly messed up my first attempt at the braid, a fumble with my hands messed up my second, and a massive knot that took ten minutes and both Fili and Kili to undo messed up my third. It was very obvious that I wasn't going to learn without a mirror - at least, at first.

"I'm useless," I groaned, dropping my hands from my hair. "Maybe a ponytail will be better."

Kili leaned over towards me. "May I?" he asked.

Was he asking if he could do my hair? At least he probably wouldn't completely screw it up like I had been doing. "Yeah. You're probably better than I am," I said truthfully.

He gave me a slight smile as he rode up next to me. Our legs were gently rubbing up against each other's as Kili reached up to my hair. I felt his fingers start to run through the strands and I blushed softly. Having a man play with my hair was always one of my favorite things. It was one of the easiest ways that they could get to me. Kili started a braid against the top and side of my head as he then wrapped it down to the back of my head, letting it fall onto the other shoulder.

The way that his fingers worked, it was like the entire thing was effortless for him. Maybe it was. Considering the way that the others had their hair done, I assumed that braiding was something that had practically branded into them. He was almost halfway through the complicated braid when I could see his fingers lingering around my temple. A few moments later his hands dropped and I felt them brush against my throat. It was very hard to force myself to stay silent and not let a moan out.

It had always felt wonderful. It felt even more wonderful today. Despite the warm air, goosebumps rose on my skin. "Nadad!" Fili shouted from a few meters away.

Both of us ripped away from each other. Kili's hands practically immediately vanished from my head. I assumed that Fili had yelled something in Khuzdul, but I had no idea what it was. I assumed that it wasn't good though as I glanced around confusedly. Thorin and Dwalin were giving me a piercing glare. The rest of the company looked rather confused at the turn of events. So was I. Fili was motioning for Kili to ride a little bit away from me. What the hell just happened?

"Y - Yes, like so," Kili said awkwardly.

"Uh... thanks," I said, taking the half-finished braid into my own hands. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course," Kili said quickly. His voice was shaking and he looked extraordinarily concerned about something. "Can you manage?"

"Yeah. I'm not that useless," I teased, trying to make him feel better.

Obviously something had happened that had made him incredibly afraid. Or nervous. Something. Kili gave me a weak smile before heading to ride off alongside Fili. The two of them were chattering away in hushed tones, very quickly and urgently. The rest of the company seemed to be glaring at me. I raised my brows but headed over towards Bilbo. He seemed to be the only one as confused about this as I was. I didn't understand what the big deal was. He was just helping me do my hair...

Everything was very awkward. I slowly sank behind Bilbo, who was trying to shield me from their glares. At least, I thought that he was. Gandalf, as usual, still seemed unbothered. I had a feeling that he had just permanently blocked out the dwarves. Over the next few minutes all of the dwarves chattered away in Khuzdul, some of them laughing, others simply watching me carefully. Kili still seemed to be reeling with embarrassment. So was I, although I wasn't sure why.

"Do you know what that's all about?" I whispered to Bilbo.

"No," Bilbo said.

"Mind if I ride with you? It's getting a little weird with all of them staring at me."

"It would be my pleasure, Leah."

The two of us rode alongside each other in silence for a little while, but the silence was tense, as the others were still staring at me. "Tell me a story," I told Bilbo suddenly, drawing his attention. "I need something to distract me from them."

Bilbo hummed quietly. "Would you like to hear the story of the first time that I saw Gandalf's firework displays?" he offered.

"I would love to," I said happily.

That sounded like a lovely time. Seeing Gandalf's fireworks was something that would have always fascinated me. I had always loved the fireworks that they had set off in Disney World. Bilbo quietly told me all about the amazing firework display. It sounded magical. It was a rather fascinating story. The fireworks sounded like they must have been quite something to look at. I had been quick to tell Bilbo that I would have loved to see Gandalf's fireworks one day.

Eventually things with the rest of the company calmed down a little bit. They stopped glaring at me and the others seemed to relax slightly. Even Kili seemed to go back to normal after a while. It took us a while to look around and find somewhere to camp out for the night. I kept trying to avoid everyone's glances - and not just because of the previous hair incident. I really didn't want to let the troll attack slip. Like Gandalf said, no one died during the attack. We would be fine...

But that didn't stop me from being nervous. In fact, it made me even more nervous. I remembered very little about the troll attack from the film, only that there was a near-miss with us getting eaten. What if the trolls were smarter in... reality? I knew that there was no point in worrying anyone over something that wouldn't hurt anyone, but that didn't stop me from fearing what was to come. Especially since I was going to be involved this time around.

Not long passed before I began to recognize the terrain that we were riding on. It was exactly like the way that the road had appeared in the film. I knew that we were within seconds of arriving near the trolls' hideout. At least, our makeshift campsite. I tried looking out for where the trolls were hiding, but they must have been in their cave right now. After all, there was still some daylight. I wasn't even going to be able to accidentally make the dwarves stumble on them.

Mostly because I had no idea where their cave was. It was close to their campsite, but I wasn't really sure where that was either. It meant that there was nothing to stop us from running headfirst into the trolls. It was going to happen. I really wasn't ready to see them, but I knew that I would at least have another hour or so before Fili and Kili would realize that the ponies were missing. Eventually we arrived at an old, abandoned farmhouse that was in ruins, just like the one in the film.

"We'll camp here for the night," Thorin decided.

My spine straightened. "Are we sure that we want to stay here?" I asked quietly.

Thorin's head snapped around to me. I groaned. Why did I have to open my fat mouth? Like he hadn't hated me enough. "Why would we not?" he growled.

"I - I don't know," I bumbled over my words. "It doesn't look too... safe..."

"This is why wee lassies should never come out in the wilderness," Dwalin sighed.

A shot of indignation seared through me. "Excuse you!" I shouted.

Before I could say anything to make things even worse, Kili rode up alongside me. "Don't worry about anything, Leah," he said, clearly over his previous issue with the hair. "Is there something wrong with staying here?"

Yeah, trolls are about to try and eat us. "No - No," I stuttered awkwardly. "There's nothing wrong with being here. It just seems the slightest bit strange. There's something a little bit ominous about this place. I don't know. It doesn't matter."

"Are you sure?" Kili asked, looking unconvinced.

"Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them," Thorin barked.

Kili was still hesitant to leave my side. "Leah, are you alright?" Kili asked.

Smiling what I hoped was a reassuring smile, I waved him off. "I'm fine, Kili. Go ahead. Better not make him wait," I said.

"If you're sure."

"Go. Thorin needs you."

Grabbing his forearm, I nodded him. He laid his hand over my own for a second, slowly moving away. He allowed me to hop off of Misty, using his shoulder as a rest as his hand rested at my hip. A slight tingle shot through me as he slowly let his hand fall away and he walked off. He and Fili stalked off, quickly asking me to put out their things for them for the night. Not that they would ever use them. We would be spending our night with the trolls.

In the meantime, Gandalf was wandering about the ruins of the house. "A farmer and his family used to live here," Gandalf said, looking around.

"Does this place seem off to you, Gandalf?" I asked carefully, wandering into what appeared to have once been the living room.

"Indeed it does," Gandalf said absentmindedly.

"Perhaps we should move on, yes?" I offered.

"Perhaps I should take a wander," Gandalf said, more to himself.

Clenching my jaws, I turned towards Gandalf and placed my hands on my hips. "Did you bring me on this quest so that you could purposely ignore me?" I snapped.

"Pardon me, my dear," Gandalf said, brushing past me.

"I'll take that as a yes," I muttered.

"Oin, Gloin," Thorin called.

"Aye?" Gloin asked.

"Get a fire going," Thorin ordered.

"Right you are," Gloin said.

As the rest of the company began unpacking, Gandalf stood at the ridge of the house, looking over them. "I think it would be wiser to move on. We could make for the Hidden Valley," Gandalf offered.

"Now, see? That's a wonderful idea," I put in.

Thorin strolled away from the rest of the company, coming up to where Gandalf and I were still standing. "I have told you already, I will not go near that place," Thorin growled.

"Why not?" Gandalf asked as Thorin walked past. I remained awkwardly in my position. "The elves could help us. We could get food, rest, advice."

"I do not need their advice," Thorin growled, turning around.

"We have a map that we cannot read. Lord Elrond could help us," Gandalf pointed out.

"Help?" Thorin repeated disbelievingly, as one of the horses neighed in the background. "A dragon attacks Erebor, what help came from the Elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrate our sacred halls, the Elves looked on and did nothing. You ask me to seek out the very people who betrayed my grandfather and betrayed my father."

"You are neither of them. I did not give you that map and key for you to hold on to the past."

"I did not know that they were yours to keep."

Deciding that it might help if I said something, I stepped in between the two men. "Weren't the elves that didn't come to your aid after Erebor was attacked from Greenwood? Mirkwood? Something like that..." I muttered dumbly, once I realized that I didn't remember where they were from. "They aren't the same as the elves of the Hidden Valley."

Was I speaking the truth? I didn't know. But either way, the comment was not well-received from Thorin. "I was unaware that I asked for your opinion," Thorin hissed.

"Now that was uncalled for," I muttered as he turned away.

Thorin turned away, growling what I assumed were Khuzdul curses. "Miss Ambrose, please return to your things and help set up camp. I am not interested in your theories," Thorin said as nicely as I assumed was possible.

"Okay," I breathed, turning and walking off. "See how much they want my help? Gandalf?" He didn't respond. "This is really a bad time for you to leave!"

But he clearly wasn't interested in listening to my theories, just the way that Thorin wasn't interested in hearing my theories. I rolled my eyes and followed Gandalf as he angrily walked off, leaving the company. I wanted to call him back, as I was still fearful that - for some reason - Gandalf wouldn't come to our rescue with the trolls, but I decided not to. Instead I simply followed him, watching as the rest of the company glanced up curiously at the angered wizard.

"Everything alright?" Bilbo asked, petting Myrtle's nose. "Gandalf, where are you going?"

"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense," Gandalf growled as he stormed through the dwarves.

"Who's that?" Bilbo asked.

"Myself, Mr. Baggins!" Gandalf shouted back. "I've had enough of dwarves for one day."

"But," I started, sprinting after him, "Gandalf -"

"I will be on the lookout. Not to fear, Miss Ambrose. I will return shortly," Gandalf said, stopping just long enough to turn back and speak to me.

"Umm... alright," I mumbled stupidly.

Without giving me a moment to respond, Gandalf stalked off. "Come on, Bombur, we're hungry," Thorin's voice echoed.

"Is he coming back?" Bilbo asked Balin.

Yes, he's going to split a giant rock to freeze three trolls and turn them to stone while they debate on how to cook us. As funny as it might have been to say that out loud, I decided that it was for the best to remain silent. Balin looked very unsure at Bilbo's question and merely gave him an awkwardly unsure look. Turning back from where Gandalf had walked off from, I headed back towards the rest of the company, who were preparing for the night.

"Yeah. He'll be back. He's probably just going to check out what's going on. I doubt that he'll be gone for long," I said, knowing that I wasn't being convincing.

"He is quite strange, isn't he?" Bilbo said.

"Yet they call me the strange one," I teased.

Bilbo chucked softly. The two of us were smiling at each other as I slowly started walking off. Not that I knew what to do, other than wait for the trolls. All of a sudden I was halted in my tracks by what appeared to be a passing rainstorm. I dropped my head back with a loud groan, feeling the rain pound over my cheeks. I had always hated the rain whenever I was out and about, especially on this trip. I didn't even have a damn umbrella. I would just have to wear my cloak and try to ignore it.

"Are we having fun yet?" I groaned. Bilbo snorted.

"Just when a wizard would have been most useful, too," Dori and Nori groaned.

For a little while we thought about heading somewhere else, somewhere drier, but we decided in the end that we would have to camp where we were. We moved to a clump of trees, and though it was drier under them, the wind shook the rain off the leaves, and the drip was extremely annoying. The mischief seemed to have got into the fire. Dwarves could make a fire almost anywhere out of almost anything, wind or no wind; but they couldn't do it tonight, not even Oin and Gloin, who were especially good at it.

Not while it was still raining, at least. Perhaps a little while later. Things went from bad to worse very quickly. Then one of the ponies took fright at nothing and bolted. He got into the river before we could manage to catch him; and before we could get him out again, Fili and Kili were nearly drowned. Panicked at the sudden change of events, I dove in after them, ignoring the heavy water currents. I was a strong swimmer, having been raised in Florida.

I managed to help Fili and Kili out of the river within a few moments, now even more soaked than I was before. Having saved them had clearly put me back in the good graces with the company, who had all thanked me thoroughly. Even Thorin. Fili and Kili were embarrassed, but very grateful. Unfortunately all of the baggage that the pony had carried was washed away off him. Of course it was mostly food, and there was mighty little left for supper, and less for breakfast.

Then we all sat glum and wet and muttering, while Oin and Gloin went on trying to light the fire, and quarreling about it. I was sadly reflecting that adventures are not all pony-rides in May sunshine, when Balin, who was always our look-out man pointed out that there was a light in the distance. There was a hill some way off with trees on it, pretty thick in parts. Out of the dark mass of the trees we could now see a light shining, a reddish comfortable-looking light, as it might be a fire or torches twinkling.

Trolls, I realized with a hint of fear. Being nighttime now, they must have come out. After we had looked at it for some while, we then fell to arguing. Some of the dwarves said 'no' as to whether or not we should head to it - myself being one of them - and some of them said 'yes'. Some of them said that they could but go and see, and anything was better than little supper, less breakfast, and wet clothes all the night.

There was also the argument that these parts weren't too well known, and were far too near the mountains. Apparently travelers seldom came this way now. The old maps were no use: things had apparently changed for the worse and the road was unguarded. It seemed that it had always been guarded. According to Balin, 'They have seldom even heard of the king round here, and the less inquisitive you are as you go along, the less trouble you are likely to find.'

Honestly I wasn't quite sure what that meant. But the others seemed to understand, so I merely let it go. Although Balin did then point out that there were still fifteen of us that remained. Not that it made much of a difference between three mountain trolls. Others still asked about where had Gandalf had gotten to? That remark was repeated by everybody. Then the rain began to pour down worse than ever, and Oin and Gloin began to fight.

That settled it. As they said, we had a burglar with us. And so we made off, leading our ponies (with all due and proper caution) in the direction of the light. We eventually came to the hill and were soon in the wood. Up the hill we went; but there was no proper path to be seen, such as might lead to a house or a farm. We then had to do what we could with the deal of rustling and crackling and creaking (and a good deal of grumbling and complaining), as we went through the trees in the pitch dark.

"Who's going to tell Fili and Kili where we are?" I finally asked.

"They aren't as useless as you might think, lassie," Balin said, turning to me with a slight smile. "They know that we were thinking of moving into a deeper part of the woods."

"Okay."

As the hours passed, it was getting more and more tense. The only good thing was that, after a few hours, the rain finally subsided. Which was good, because I didn't remember the fight with the trolls being in the rain and I figured that in the rain would be even worse. We also finally managed to light a fire and get dinner started, not that it was anything good. Bombur eventually managed to prepare a dinner of soup, and the dwarves quickly started eating it.

"He's been a long time," Bilbo finally said.

"Who?" Bofur asked, ladling some soup.

"Gandalf," Bilbo explained.

"He's a wizard! He does as he chooses. Here, do us a favor: take this to the lads," Bofur said.

Bofur reached underneath his arm and handed over the two bowls of soup that he had been ladling a moment before. Bofur threw his head back in the direction that Fili and Kili were keeping watch at. Bilbo took the two bowls of soup and turned away. A knot formed in my stomach. The troll attack was literally minutes away. As I was stewing in my own concern, Bombur tried to take some more soup. He was stopped by a swat on the hand from Bofur.

"Stop it, you've had plenty," Bofur pointed out.

"Aye, it's not a bad stew, Bombur. I've had worse," Gloin called.

"Dori could have cooked it," Nori teased, making the rest of the dwarves laugh. Even I cracked a smile.

"Hilarious," Dori snapped.

"Leah, would you like to join?" Bilbo offered.

"No," I said quickly.

"What?" Bilbo asked, snapping his head over towards me.

I realized just a few moments too late that my words would have been considered rather rude. "I - I mean..." I wasn't really sure what I should say. I really didn't want to see the trolls, but I knew that I wasn't getting out of this. "Yeah, sure. I'll take one," I said begrudgingly.

"Thank you," Bilbo said, handing me one of the bowls.

"You're welcome," I said.

"Shall we?"

"Yeah."

No, I would really love to avoid some man-eating trolls. But I didn't say anything. I merely gave a tight-lipped smile and followed Bilbo out into the darkness of the woods. The two of us walked out together, myself being a lot jumpier than I normally was. We quickly arrived on the place where Fili and Kili were watching the ponies. Just like they had been in the movie, the two of them were staring out into the darkness and didn't take the soup from us when we handed it to them.

"Boys?" I finally called.

"What's the matter?" Bilbo asked.

"We're supposed to be looking out for the ponies," Kili said.

"Only we've encountered a slight problem," Fili said.

"We had seventeen."

"Now there's fifteen."

Glancing out towards the pen that the ponies were sitting in, I nodded my consent. At least two of the ponies were missing. Rather selfishly, I checked to ensure that Misty was still in the pen. She was. I followed Fili and Kili into the pen, Bilbo on our heels, and quickly stopped at her side. She gave a slight neigh as I patted her nose, trying to softly reassure her that everything was going to be okay. And partially reassuring myself.

"Daisy and Bungo are missing," Kili said, blowing past me.

"Did you two look away? For even a moment?" I asked sharply.

Both Fili and Kili stared at each other quickly. "No," they answered together.

Rolling my eyes at the brothers, I nodded and walked past them. "Yeah, sure you didn't. What were you two morons doing?" I asked sharply.

"Nothing, Leah. So mistrusting," Fili said playfully.

"When it comes to the two of you supposed to be doing something, no, I have no faith in you," I snapped.

"Well, that's not good. Ha, ha," Bilbo said, laughing awkwardly, oblivious to our back-and-forth. "And that is not good at all." Bilbo pointed to a tree that had recently been uprooted. "Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

"Uh, no. Let's not worry him. As our official burglar, we thought you might like to look into it," Fili said.

Oh, that's a really nice thing to do. Put off your own problems on the poor Hobbit, who is now going to have to deal with trolls the size of a building. I glared at Fili, who still seemed to be rather oblivious to the fact that what he was doing something terrible to our poor friend. Bilbo paled slightly. I leaned over and grabbed Bilbo on the shoulder, trying to silently reassure him that we were going to be alright. But the sight of the uprooted trees had clearly panicked him.

"Oh, you two are not doing that," I snapped at the brothers. "We should tell Thorin."

"Why worry him?" Fili asked.

"Well, uh... look, some - something big uprooted these trees," Bilbo stuttered.

"That was our thinking," Kili agreed.

"Brilliant," I muttered.

"Something very big, and possibly quite dangerous," Bilbo said.

"Hey! There's a light. Over here!" Fili gasped. It was the same light that the company had seen earlier. "Stay down."

"We should really get everyone else," I whispered.

"Come on. Stay down and stay quiet," Kili whispered back.

Why was it that everyone always seemed to think that it was for the best to ignore Leah? I really did know what I was talking about from time to time. The four of us ducked down through the toppled trees and roots, running towards the fire that Fili had seen. We ducked down and hid behind one of the logs that had been uprooted and gazed out at the fire. I couldn't see the trolls yet, but I could hear their harsh laughter. I swallowed a lump in my throat.

"What is it?" Bilbo asked.

"Trolls," Kili answered.

"Oh, good," I groaned.

Without giving either one of us a moment to ask a question, Fili and Kili jumped up and ran off towards the fire - and subsequently, the trolls. Bilbo and I started to follow them, when he suddenly turned back and grabbed the two bowls of soup that we had left on the log. I rolled my eyes as we continued following them. The two of us ducked behind a tree just in time to see a massive mountain troll walking towards the fire, carrying a pony under each arm.

My legs were briefly started quivering. They were huge. "He's got Myrtle and Minty!" Bilbo gasped to Fili and Kili. "I think they're going to eat them, we have to do something."

Fili and Kili looked up, appearing almost surprised. "Yes; you should," Kili said, coming to a stand and grabbing Bilbo's shoulders. "Mountain trolls are slow and stupid, and you're so small."

"N - n - no," Bilbo stuttered fearfully.

"You two are not doing that to him," I said, whacking Kili on the shoulder.

"That's what he's here for," Fili pointed out brightly.

"They'll never see you," Kili said.

"No, no, no..." Bilbo whispered.

"This is a terrible idea," I groaned.

"It's perfectly safe! We'll be right behind you," Kili said, shoving Bilbo.

"Boys, absolutely not," I snapped.

"It's a great idea," Kili told me.

"It's a terrible idea!" I snapped back. But it clearly wasn't changing anything. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, knowing that this wasn't going to end well. "Okay... fine... if you two aren't going to listen to me, I'll go with him." Fili and Kili instantly started arguing with me, but I cut them off. "Don't worry, we're both small and fast. They won't see us. Go get Thorin and the others. You hear me?"

"Leah," Kili started, instantly panicking, "don't -"

"You're risking his life, you can risk mine, too," I said truthfully. "We'll be fine. Just run and get them quickly, please."

Kili took a few breaths before finally nodding, obviously begrudgingly. "Okay. Okay. Don't let them see you," Kili advised.

"Of course not." Kili went to walk away when I reached out and caught his sleeve. Kili turned back to me, obviously surprised at my sudden action. "Hey. If I get caught by those trolls and eaten, I'm coming after you in the afterlife, got it?" I said.

"Nothing will happen to you, Leah. I promise," Kili said fiercely.

The two of us stood together for a moment as I debated back and forth over whether or not this was really a good idea. Bilbo had been fine originally, but wasn't I here to help? I knew that the trolls were going to be extremely dangerous, but it didn't matter. I didn't want to let Bilbo go after the trolls by himself. I just wanted to try and protect him. Kili distracted me by reaching towards me and placing his hands on my cheeks. I reached up and grabbed him by his wrists.

"Hurry up," I half-ordered and half-begged.

"We'll be back in just a moment," Kili promised.

"Don't you dare let them kill me," I snapped.

"I swear it," Kili said.

He very slowly let go of me and walked back over towards Fili and Bilbo. "If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl, once like a brown owl," Fili advised Bilbo.

The two of them reached out and pushed Bilbo towards the fire. I nodded at the two brothers and walked after Bilbo slowly. It was a frightening prospect, but I had to do this. It was the first time that I would really get to prove myself. As they both darted back to the rest of the company, giving me reassuring squeezes of the arm, I dashed after Bilbo. He was whispering Fili's instructions to himself, clearly trying to remember them, but he seemed to have already gotten mixed up.

"Do you even know how to hoot?" I asked Bilbo as we crept forward.

"Well it can't be that hard, can it?" Bilbo asked.

"I don't even know what they sound like, do you?"

"I - I suppose."

"This is such a terrible idea," I groaned.

"Twice like a barn owl, twice like a brown... once like a brown? Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bilbo turned around, but Fili and Kili were already out of sight, headed back to get the others. "Where have they gone?" Bilbo asked breathlessly.

"Back to camp. They're bringing the others. We just have to make sure that the trolls don't move and that they don't eat the horses. Come on," I said softly.

Grabbing his hand, I gently pulled him with me. Not that either one of us wanted to go, but we had to. Off Bilbo and I had to go, before either one of us got the chance to explain that we couldn't hoot even once like any kind of owl any more than fly like a bat. But at any rate, the two were right that Hobbits could move quietly in the woods, absolutely quietly. Apparently they took a pride in it. Bilbo had told me that once before. And I had always prided myself on my near-silent walking from training.

Plus Bilbo had sniffed more than once at what he called 'all this dwarfish racket,' as we went along, though I didn't suppose that anyone would have noticed anything at all on a windy night, not if the whole cavalcade had passed two feet off. As for Bilbo and I walking primly towards the red light, I didn't suppose that even a weasel would have stirred a whisker at it. So, naturally, we got right up to the fire without disturbing anyone. And what we saw was even crazier than I had imagined.

Three very large trolls were sitting round a very large fire of beech-logs. They were toasting mutton on long spits of wood, and licking the gravy off their fingers. There was a fine toothsome smell. Also there was a barrel of mead at hand, and they were drinking out of jugs. They were trolls. Obviously trolls. Even me, in spite of not being from Middle Earth, could see that: from the great heavy faces of them, and their size, and the shape of their legs, not to mention their language, which was quite poor.

My memory of them was quite vague from the film. I more remembered people talking about them and comparing them to the way that they had been in the book. Lots of complaints, if I remembered correctly. The three trolls, Tom, Bert, and Ernie, I thought it was, were all sitting around a fire on which a cauldron of god-knew-what was cooking. Tom had brought the ponies in, as they said. Bert was the cook and was wearing an apron. That meant that William was the one with a dirty vest.

"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrow," Bert complained.

"Never a blinking bit of man-flesh have we had for long enough. What the 'ell William was a-thinkin' of to bring us into these parts at all, beats me - and the drink runnin' short, what's more," Ernie said, jogging the elbow of William, who was taking a pull at his jug.

"Quit yer' griping. These ain't sheep. These is West Nags!" Tom shouted.

"Oh, I don't like 'orse. I never 'ave," William complained as Tom dropped the ponies in their own pen. "Not enough fat on them."

"Well, it's better than the leathery old farmer," Tom said. My skin immediately broke out in goosebumps, despite the humid air. "All skin and bone, he was. I'm still picking bits of him out of me teeth."

They had seemed so stupid in the film. They still seemed extremely stupid. But they seemed a little more dangerous right now. Mostly because of the whole, they-could-actually-eat-me thing. I grabbed Bilbo's arm as the two of us snuck forward a little more, trying to get to the pen that was holding our ponies. They had already grabbed another two. William suddenly sneezed into the pot that they had boiling over the fire. I didn't even want to know what it was that had landed in there.

"Oh..." I gasped, my stomach roiling, threatening to make my dinner reappear. "Oh, that's disgusting."

Yes, it was quite astonishing to see that trolls really did behave like that, even those with only one head each. Constantly barking at each other. After hearing all of that, I knew that I ought to have done something at once. Either we should have gone back quietly and warned our friends that there were three fair-sized trolls at hand in a nasty mood, quite likely to try roasted dwarf, or even pony, for a change; or else we should have done a bit of good quick burgling.

A really first-class and legendary burglar would at this point have picked the trolls' pockets - it seemed nearly always worthwhile, if you could manage it, pinched the very mutton off the spits, purloined the beer, and walked off without their noticing us. Others more practical but with less professional pride would perhaps have stuck a dagger into each of them before they observed it. Then the night could have been spent cheerily. I could have even shot them with a few arrows.

Honestly, I knew it. I had read of a good many things that I had never seen or done. I was very much alarmed, as well as disgusted; I wished myself a hundred miles away, or in my own dimension, and yet somehow I could not go straight back to Thorin and the others empty handed. So we stood and hesitated in the shadows. Of the various burglarizing procedures I had heard of, picking the trolls' pockets seemed the least difficult, so at last we crept behind a tree just behind William.

"Oh, that's lovely, that is; a floater," Bert said.

"I don't remember this," I whispered, still very fuzzy on the details from the troll attack.

"What?" Bilbo asked quietly.

"Nothing," I said dumbly.

"Oh, might improve the flavor!" Tom said.

"Ah! There's more where that came from," William said.

Tom, the smallest of the trolls and the one with the wheezy voice, stood over the fire and glanced down at it. He reached a hand up to his mouth and I glanced away in disgust for a moment. This was awful. They were so damned gross. Tom was about to sneeze into the cauldron again, but Bert grabbed him by the nose. At least that was better. Bilbo grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him. Because they were distracted, we got around, unseen, behind them.

"Oh no you don't," Bert growled.

"Ow!" Tom cried out as Bert held him by the nostrils. "Ow! Ow!"

"Sit down," Bert demanded, throwing Tom down.

The three of them began settling down again as Bert went back to tending to the cauldron. Tom reached behind him for the handkerchief that was hanging out of his back pocket and sneezed into it rather disgustingly. At least I didn't have to see it this time. Tom blew his nose and sniffed for a long time as Bilbo and I reached the pen that was holding the ponies. The two of us immediately went to untying the knots, but we were forced to stop and hide when William turned towards us.

"Well I hope you're gonna gut these nags. I don't like the stinky parts," William said.

Bilbo and I were pressed against the pen as tightly as we could. Any further and we would have slipped through the wooden bars. My heart was beating so fast that I was sure that one of the trolls was going to hear it. William made a move to stand up and grab one of the ponies - thereby seeing Bilbo and I - but at that same moment Bert whacked William with his ladle over the head. William squealed in pain, dropping back a few steps.

"I said sit down!" Bert growled.

"I'm starving!" Tom yelled. As the trolls' backs were turned, Bilbo and I jumped out of our hiding spots and went back to work on the knots. "Are we 'aving horse tonight or what?"

"Shut your cake-hole. You'll eat what I give ya'," Bert barked.

Bilbo's hand went to mine as I managed to get the first of the knots undone. I had to give it to them, the trolls made a hell of a knot. I glanced up to see what Bilbo wanted when I spotted it. William had pulled out his handkerchief, and in the meantime, he had unsheathed a long knife in his belt. I knew what Bilbo was thinking. The knots were going to take too long to undo by hand. Fighting them would be easier. So Bilbo tried to move forward and get the knife from his belt.

In the meantime, my hand went back to reach my bow. Bilbo could take one. I could take the other two. But there was one problem. My bow wasn't there. "My bow... Where the hell is my bow?" I whispered desperately.

"Is it back at camp?" Bilbo asked.

"Oh..." I whispered stupidly. What a moron I was. "Of course it is! I forgot it!"

"Well we weren't expecting this," Bilbo pointed out.

Maybe you weren't expecting man-eating trolls to be here, but I certainly was. I had known that the trolls were going to be out here. I had known that we were going to have to deal with this tonight, seeing as no one wanted to listen to me, but I hadn't even thought to prepare. I couldn't believe that I was so stupidly foolish to forget about my bow. It was the one line of defense that I had against the trolls, and now I had nothing.

"Yeah, right," I mumbled.

"How come 'e's the cook?" Tom asked. "Everything tastes the same. Everything tastes like chicken."

"Except the chicken," William pointed out.

"That tastes like fish!" Tom howled.

Bilbo and I were slowly slinking towards the knife when Bilbo turned around to run off. I grabbed him around the shoulders and forced him to head back towards the trolls. "I'm just saying, a little appreciation would be nice. 'Thank you very much, Bert,' 'Lovely stew, Bert'; how hard is that? Hmm, it just needs a sprinkle of squirrel dung," Bert complained.

As Bilbo and I dropped down to our knees, slowly slinking forward, some of the ponies seemed to finally notice what we were trying to do. They started neighing at us as Bilbo and I shushed them. Bilbo picked up a bone before quickly realizing that it was a human bone. He cried out softly as I shoved him forward. We didn't have time for this. As Bert's hand went over Bilbo and I, the two of us dropped flat against the ground, praying that they wouldn't grab us.

Thankfully William picked up the mug that was next to us, but Bert was quickly angered with him. "Here, that's my grog!" Bert growled.

"Uh, uh, sorry," William said.

Once more, Bert reared back and whacked William with the back of his ladle. William went falling back off of the log as Bilbo and I exchanged a quick look with each other. They were both stupid and disgusting. William whined for a moment before slowly getting back to his feet and sitting down on the log. He still looked very woozy. In the meantime, Bert was tasting the soup that he had now put in his ladle.

"Oh, that is beautifully balanced, that is," Bert said. Bert then let Tom taste some of the soup in the ladle; Tom gulped it down. At the same time, Bilbo and I ran underneath them to get behind William. "Wrap your head around that, mate. Eh? Good, innit? Heh, heh, heh. That's why I'm the cook."

The two of us were sprinting forward to ensure that the two of us would be out of their sight by the time that they were all sitting together again. Bilbo tried to grab the knife out of the back of William's sheath, but it was impossible. The troll kept shifting every time that we got close. I wrapped a hand around the handle, but the moment that William moved, I was torn away from it. Eventually William stood up and scratched his ass right in our faces. This is so goddamn degrading.

"Back! Back!" I whisper-yelled as we were nearly grabbed by William.

"Me guts are grumbling, I've got to snaffle something. Flesh I need, flesh!" Tom yelled.

Bilbo was very slowly reaching up to grab the knife. Unfortunately I recognized the scene just about a moment too late. Before I got the chance to warn Bilbo or yank him back, William reacted. About to sneeze, he reached back behind him for his handkerchief. Instead of grabbing it though, he accidentally grabbed Bilbo, who yelped. I tried to reach for him, but I was too slow. William sneezed all over Bilbo, spraying him with... I didn't want to know what it was.

"No, no, no! Bilbo!" I howled.

At that same moment, William realized that he wasn't holding any ordinary booger. "Argh!" William yelled, jumping to his feet. "Blimey! Bert! Bert! Look what's come out of me 'ooter! It's got arms and legs and everything."

The other trolls immediately gathered around to look. "What is it?" Tom asked.

What do I do? "I don't know, but I don't like the way it wriggles around!" William yelped.

To my horror, William began jumping around. In just a moment he had managed to shake Bilbo free from the handkerchief and onto the ground. Bilbo hit the ground roughly, still looking absolutely disgusting as he was covered in snot. For a moment I thought about getting to my feet and running out to help him. But Bilbo quickly turned to me and motioned me back behind the ponies' cage. I hesitantly stayed in my place as Bilbo got to his feet.

"What are you then?" Tom asked, jumping after him and brandishing his knife. "An oversized squirrel?"

"I'm a burglar - uh, Hobbit," Bilbo stuttered dumbly.

"A burglahobbit?" William asked.

"Can we cook 'im?" Tom asked.

"We can try!" William cried greedily.

At that same moment, William made a sudden lunge for Bilbo. His hand dropped down as Bilbo was smart enough to run. I gasped softly as I watched from behind the ponies, wondering what I was supposed to do. I didn't have my damn bow... I certainly couldn't wrestle the trolls. And where the hell were Fili and Kili? Bilbo tried to run in between two rocks to escape the trolls when he was cornered by Bert.

"No!" I screamed, forgetting myself and jumping into the fray. "No! Stop!"

The trolls all whirled around to where I was now standing by the fire. Bilbo looked horrified. "Who are you?" Tom asked.

A fucking moron, apparently. I could have stayed hidden there! "I'm - I'm his... sister," I said stupidly.

"Sister? Can we eat 'er too?" Tom asked.

"No, you most certainly may not eat me!" I shouted loudly. They stared at me as I placed my hands on my hips. Come on, Mom's a lawyer. Figure this out! "You can't eat either one of us. And, honestly, you can't eat our horses. They were tied up and a part of our camp. You are stealing, gentlemen."

"What'd you call us?" Tom howled.

"It's - it's a compliment!" I shouted back. There was no way that they could be that stupid. Could they? "You seem like smart men, aren't you?"

"'Course we are!" Bert barked.

"Exactly!" I said quickly, breathing quickly. "See, I knew that? You are smart, indeed. And that means that you aren't going to be foolish enough to eat us. Because - because -"

"'Cause?" Tom interrupted.

"She's tryin' to sweet-talk us," William said.

"No! No, I'm not!" I shouted.

"'Betcha we can trade 'er," Bert said suddenly.

Being traded was probably better than being eaten. Not that I wanted either one of those things to happen. "To who?" I asked.

That is so not the point, Leah. "Fetch a pretty price, she would," Tom said offhandedly.

"No. No - Bilbo, help," I gasped breathlessly.

"Wha' 'bout 'im?" William asked.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment. Where the hell were Fili and Kili? "He wouldn't make more than a mouthful, not when he's skinned and boned!" Bert yelped.

Bert whacked Bilbo in the stomach with his ladle, throwing him backwards. I ran after him, but we were cut off by Tom. "Perhaps there's more burglarhobbits around these parts," Tom said, holding his knife out. "Might be enough for a pie."

William hit Bilbo in the stomach, throwing him back again. "Grab him!" Bert yelled.

"Move!" I screamed.

"Get her!" Tom yelled.

"They're too quick!" William shouted.

Bilbo wrapped a hand around my own to make sure that I was coming with him. The two of us immediately ducked down and sprinted off into the distance. The two of us ran straight through their legs and in between their grasps. As the trolls chased after us, I jumped into a tuck and roll, narrowly avoiding Bert's ladle, which instead hit William in the leg. As I was recovering from the near-miss, Bilbo was caught around the legs by Tom and held upside down in the air.

"Come here, you little... Gotcha!" Tom yelled happily.

"Bilbo!" I shouted fearfully.

Within seconds, I was trapped in between Bert and William. "Are there any more of you little fellas 'iding where you shouldn't?" Tom asked.

"Nope," Bilbo said.

"He's lying," William said.

"No I'm not!" Bilbo yelled.

"It's just us!" I shouted, trying to distract the trolls from Bilbo. "We were on a trip from our home. We've just been camping out in different spots as we make a full tour of Middle Earth."

"Where are your things?" Tom asked.

Anything to keep them talking and not trying to eat either one of us. "Back at our camp. It's not far from here. We can give you what you want, just don't eat him. Please," I begged.

William stared at me for a moment. "They're both lying. Hold his toes over the fire. Make him squeal."

"No!" I shouted.

"What about her?" Bert asked.

"Tie her up," Tom said.

Just as I made a move to sprint away, Tom leaned down and managed to wrap his grimy hand around my waist. I screamed as he picked me up, holding me level with his eye. I spit at him, but the only thing that it made him do was tighten his grip to the point that I was sure that I would pop. At that same moment, I spotted Kili run out of the bushes, cutting William in the middle of his calf, making him howl and fall to the ground in pain.

"You took long enough!" I shouted.

"Drop them!" Kili shouted.

"You what?" Tom snarled.

Kili twirled his sword rather impressively in his hands. "I said -" Kili started.

Wait a second. This part I remember. "Wait, wait, wait, no!" I shouted.

"- drop them."

It worked in real life just about as well as it did in the movie. In fact, it worked even worse in real life, considering the fact that I was here this time. Tom threw Bilbo at the same time that William threw me. I went flying through the air, but I barely got a second to scream before I whacked into Kili at full speed. At that same moment, the rest of the company came running in behind us. But I was still trying to recover from my impact with Bilbo and Kili.

Bilbo had gone rolling off of us as Kili and I rolled together, landing with our legs tangled together, Kili hovering above me. "Brilliant," I groaned, my head spinning.

"Are you alright?" Kili asked, placing a hand on my cheek.

"I'm awesome. Do you have my bow?" I asked.

"What?" Kili asked, looking horrified. "No! I thought that you had it!"

"Give me the knife!" I shouted.

William came stomping towards us. The two of us spun out of the way as I took Kili's knife from him, just barely managing to avoid being squashed by William. The company all came in, yelling and brandishing their weapons, slashing and parrying at the trolls. Mostly their legs, since they couldn't reach much else. I took the knife in my hand, darting in and out between the trolls, every now and again getting a chance to cut their legs. Not that it made much of a difference. We were all too low to the ground.

More and more dwarves were getting thrown and kicked to the ground. As Thorin slashed through part of Bert's leg, I ducked down underneath and took off one of his toes. I scrambled back in disgust as Kili slid past us on his butt, making a rather impressive slash at William's legs. As William leaned down to try and grab him, I stabbed him in the hand, making him stumble back in surprise. I exchanged a quick smile with Kili, almost getting crushed by Tom's foot in the meantime.

Kili and Bombur were managing to get to William's chest and stomach, but he was still almost impossible to kill. So I threw the knife, landing in about the middle of his stomach, very clearly slowing him down, but still not killing him. After a quick shout from me, Kili gave me a leg up to grab the knife and rip it out. As I hit the ground sprawled out on all fours, Dwalin ran over and grabbed me, practically throwing me back to my feet.

At that point, some of the dwarves were even getting picked up and thrown from the dwarves. Some of the hits looked more painful than others, especially as Tom was kicked in the nether regions and had his teeth knocked out by Dwalin's hammer. As he was down on his knees, I brought up my knife and slashed across his throat. But his skin was tougher than I was expecting. I needed to make a more direct hit.

Bofur and Fili gave me the lift that I needed. They joined hands and practically threw me up in the air towards Bert. I managed to throw my knife down straight into his collarbone. He howled in pain for a moment before reaching up, grabbing me around the waist, and hurling me through the air. I was barely lucky enough to land on Bombur, who helped me back to my feet before shoving me away from Bert's stomping feet as he tried to recover from his stabbing.

As the dwarves and I continued the fight, Bilbo ran over and grabbed William's knife. He leaned down and I watched as he cut through the ropes that were holding the gate in place, freeing the ponies, who all took off at a run. The exact moment that I reared back to try and throw the knife into Bert's eye, to try and rid us of one of the trolls, Tom had spotted Bilbo's actions. I tried to sprint after Tom to stop him, but I was too late. He had already grabbed him.

All of the dwarves immediately stopped fighting, spotting the trolls holding Bilbo by the arms and legs. "Bilbo!" Kili shouted.

"No!" Thorin yelled, holding Kili back.

"Let him go!" I shouted. "Ah!"

At the same time that I yelled, William came from behind, clearly quite angry with what I had done to him earlier, as grabbed me around the waist. For a third time I was lifted into the air far higher than I would have liked. I reached up and stabbed him in the hand. William dropped me in surprise, but halfway through the fall I was caught by Bert. My scream lodged in my throat as I realized that I was caught with no knife, as it was still lodged in William's hand.

"Leah!" Kili shouted, trying to come to my rescue. Thorin was just barely managing to hold him back from getting to me.

"Lay down your arms, or we'll rip his off," Tom warned.

"I'll crush her," Bert added.

His grip was already tightening slightly. I could feel my breath shortening. I gave Kili a look of panic, silently begging him to lay down his weapons. We would figure this out. But not like this. Kili nodded to Thorin, who was looking in between Bilbo and I. Thorin angrily planted his sword down in the ground. The others began dropping their weapons as well, just a moment later. Kili was still staring at me as he furiously threw his sword down in front of him.

Everything seemed to go silent in the moments that followed. I could tell that Thorin was absolutely furious that Bilbo and I had managed to get ourselves captured. Something that I was sure would make him hate us even more. Perhaps he would just use this as a reason that females shouldn't be on the quest. Kili made a few minor attempts to get over to Bert and free me, but I shook my head. It was no use. Gandalf would be here soon enough to save us. I hoped, at least.

It turned out that the movie had fast-forwarded through the night for a reason. It was a number of hours that we were all stuck just waiting for the trolls to figure out what to do with us. It didn't take them long to realize that they were going to have to do something with us to make sure that we didn't run off when their backs were turned. It was a good idea, because I was more than a little desperate to try and run and grab Gandalf to end this earlier than it did in the movie.

The trolls eventually decided on exactly what to do with us. At least in reality I was able to figure out who had been forced to go where. The dwarves tied up Dwalin, Bofur, Dori, Ori, and Nori onto a spit and quickly started roasting them over a fire; Thorin, Fili, Kili, Gloin, Bombur, Balin, Oin, and Bilbo were tied up in sacks nearby. They were clearly having a terrible time. I could see the sweat beading on their foreheads from the heat of the fire. The others looked furious at being stuck in the sacks.

Obviously their egos were getting more and more shrunken by the moment. I felt a little badly for them, but none of them more so than me. I definitely felt the worst for me. Because I was having an absolutely terrible time. Not long after the trolls had put the dwarves in their places, they had decided to tie me by my wrists to a tree near the rest of the dwarves. It was the only thing that I was hanging from, almost ten feet off of the ground. My wrists were killing me from under the strain of my weight.

Maybe I was a little heavier than I had thought that I was. Maybe I needed to stop having those second breakfasts. I gave a few desperate looks to Kili and the rest of the dwarves throughout the night. My wrists were bright red and raw from rubbing against the ropes and my hands were turning blue from the lack of blood flow. Kili gave me a reassuring nod. I could tell that he was slowly trying to get out of the sack and fight his way over to me.

"Don't bother cooking them. Let's just sit on them and squash them into jelly," William said.

All of the dwarves were shouting their own insults as the conversation turned back to how to properly cook us. "They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage," Bert said.

It might have sounded good if they weren't talking about cooking us. "Is this really necessary?" Balin asked.

"Oh, that does sound quite nice," William said.

"Untie us, you monsters!" Bombur shouted.

"Eat someone your own size!" Gloin added.

Unfortunately no one was being quiet enough to give me a moment to think. Plus the pain in my wrists was keeping me from thinking straight. All I wanted was to get down. I knew that my face was turning slightly red and the pain must have been written all over it, because I could see the concerned looks that Kili and Bilbo were shooting me. They were some of the only dwarves who weren't either speaking in indignation or fear.

"If you're going to talk about cooking us, can you at least not do it in front of us?" I growled.

"Never mind the seasoning; we ain't got all night!" Tom called to the others. "Dawn ain't far away, so let's get a move on. I don't fancy being turned to stone."

Yes. Perfect. That was exactly what had triggered Bilbo's idea in the first place. The two of us glanced at each other and I nodded at him. We were at least going to be able to distract the trolls long enough to ensure that Gandalf was able to break open the rocks and turn the trolls to stone. It was easy enough to see the lights go off in Bilbo's head.

"Do something," I whispered.

"Wait!" Bilbo shouted suddenly. "You are making a terrible mistake."

The trolls stopped turning the spit long enough to turn around and look at Bilbo. "You can't reason with them, they're halfwits!" Dori advised.

"Halfwits?" Bofur repeated. "What does that make us?"

"You know, he's actually got a good point," I muttered.

Not that anyone was really listening to me. I could feel the pain was finally starting to get to me. My head was continuously rolling around on my shoulders as I forced myself to stay awake. I hadn't eaten, I was exhausted from having not slept, and it felt like, at any moment, my wrists might snap. Bilbo rolled over onto his knees and forced himself back to his feet. He was still tied up in the sack, but finally able to fully face the trolls.

"Uh, I meant with the, uh, with, uh, with the seasoning," Bilbo said.

"What about the seasoning?" Bert asked, leaning down to the Hobbit.

"Well, have you smelt them?" Bilbo asked, feigning a laugh. "You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up."

Despite how serious the situation was - and knowing how close we were really going to be to being eaten - I couldn't help but to laugh. They were just so offended that it was almost cute. Dwarves seemed to have had a very fragile ego. They immediately started yelling at Bilbo and calling him a traitor. I rolled my eyes at the morons. He was telling the truth. They really did need a bath. The dwarves tied up in sacks tried to kick out at him.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" Tom asked sharply.

"Shut up, and let the, uh, flurgaburburrahobbit talk," Bert said, kneeling down.

"Uh," Bilbo stuttered, looking very nervous, "the - the secret to cooking dwarf is, um -"

"Yes? Come on," Bert interrupted.

"It's, uh -"

"Tell us the secret," Bert interrupted again.

"Ye - yes, I'm telling you, the secret is... to skin them first!" Bilbo shouted.

Clearly it was the first thing to come to his mind. It wasn't a good choice. "Oh, Bilbo..." I sighed.

The rest of the dwarves were all yelling all sorts of creative curses at Bilbo. "What? Skin us?" Nori asked, horrified.

"Tom, get me the filleting knife," Bert said.

"If I get you," Gloin started, "you little -"

"I won't forget that! I won't forget it!" Dwalin interrupted.

"What a load of rubbish! I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scarf them, I say, boots and all," Tom said.

Things were getting even worse the longer that we hung around here. How long was it until Gandalf got here? I could see that the dwarves were having even more of a problem being over the fire for what had seemed like hours now. Tom was still spinning the spit. Bilbo and I exchanged a look until I saw his gaze get caught by something else. I turned as much as I could, without making my wrists start to bleed again, only to see that Gandalf was slipping behind some trees nearby.

"'E's right! Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf! Nice and crunchy," William said.

It sounded almost like joy in the trolls' voice, which really disgusted em even more than anything else. They were repulsive and I desperately wished that I was anywhere else but here, especially as my wrists broke open and began to bleed all over the ropes again from having been rubbed raw. But Bombur was having a much worse day than me. William grabbed him, still placed in his sack, and dangled him upside down over his mouth, about to eat him.

"Not - not that one, he - he's infected!" Bilbo shouted.

"Huh?" William gasped.

"You what?" Tom asked.

"Yeah. He's got worms in his... tubes," Bilbo said dumbly.

Honestly, at moments like this I wished that we had House M.D. with us or something like that. At least he would have been able to make the entire thing sound like he was really a doctor and really knew what he was talking about. I could have mentioned something about parasites, but I really didn't know much about them. It didn't matter, it appeared. William dropped and half-flung Bombur back into the pile of dwarves in disgust.

Bombur landed right on Kili, which looked quite painful. "In - in fact they all have, they're in - infested with parasites. It's a terrible business; I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't," Bilbo said brightly.

"Parasites, did he say parasites?" Oin asked, having a hard time hearing without his trumpet.

"We don't have parasites! You have parasites!" Kili yelled dumbly.

"What are you talking about, laddie?" Gloin shouted.

"Hey!" I yelled over them. "Think a little bit, why don't you?"

If only they actually thought, rather than just jumping to conclusions. The rest of the dwarves started chiming in about how they didn't have parasites and how Bilbo wasn't a fool and ten other things. Bilbo and I both rolled our eyes at the dwarves messing up the plan. I gave Thorin a desperate look, and that was when it clicked. He kicked the others, who silenced themselves as they too came to the realization. All the dwarves then began proclaiming about how they were 'riddled' with parasites.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm," Oin claimed.

"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!" Kili shouted.

"We're riddled," Nori added.

"Yes, I'm riddled," Ori agreed.

"Yes we are. Badly!" Dori chirped.

"Morons," I groaned.

If I could have clapped my hand to my forehead, I would have. "What would you have us do, then, let 'em all go?" Tom asked sharply.

"Well..." Bilbo started.

And her?" Bert asked, pointing to me.

My face went as white as a sheet. I had almost forgotten that I needed a way out of this. "She's - she's... disease-ridden. What kind of buyer would want to take her? No one, that's right. She would be a waste of your time and money, honestly," Bilbo said as convincingly as possible.

"Okay, that's just a little bit offensive," I mumbled.

"You think I don't know what you're up to?" Tom growled, shoving his finger into Bilbo's chest. "This little ferret is taking us for fools!"

"Ferret?" Bilbo repeated.

"Payback for calling me disease-ridden," I said. Bilbo whipped around to me with a slightly pleading look. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Fools?" Bert repeated.

When was this going to be over? I had just seen Gandalf a few moments ago. I could feel my head spinning now with the blood loss being added to my many problems. It was running down my arms up to my elbows. Some of the dwarves were starting to give me concerned looks, clearly sensing that there was a problem. Kili looked ready to break free of his bindings, no matter the consequence. But just at that moment, Gandalf appeared on top of a large rock just above the clearing.

"About damn time..." I muttered weakly.

"The dawn will take you all!" Gandalf shouted.

Everyone turned to look at him. "Who's that?" Bert asked.

"No idea," Tom said.

"Can we eat 'im too?" William asked.

Without taking another moment, Gandalf raised up his staff and slammed it against the rock, stepping off to the right. The rock split in half, allowing sunlight to come streaming in and pour through the split rock into the clearing. The direct sunlight touched the trolls' skin and they began immediately to turn into stone amidst loud screams and howls of pain. The trolls tried to run and avoid the sunlight, but it was far too late for them.

Within moments, the three trolls were turned to stone, where they would stay forever. I vaguely remembered reading something about how they had used the original props from the Lord of the Rings in The Hobbit. I wish we had just been dealing with props and CGI. All of the dwarves began to cheer for Gandalf's reemergence. I would have normally, but my hands were literally tied and I was too weak. At least the dwarves still on the spit also looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Oh, get your foot out of my back!" Dwalin shouted.

Gandalf slowly began his descent down towards the clearing where we were all still stuck. "Miss Ambrose, I do believe that you have a wonderful sense of danger," Gandalf said, as if we were having afternoon tea and not battling trolls.

"Yeah, no shit," I mumbled. I need a fucking vacation after this. A long one with a spa. As the dwarves began to laugh and gather themselves once more, I growled and grit my teeth in pain. "Okay, this has all been fun and well, now get me down!"


	8. Chapter Eight

The next step - after spending quite a bit of time cursing the trolls for causing us all such a problem - was to untie the sacks and pull off the dwarves who were still roasting on the spit. Not to mention cutting me down, as I was sure that I was starting to get close to bleeding out. The dwarves were very annoyed: they had not at all enjoyed lying there listening to the trolls making plans for roasting them and squashing them and mincing them.

Of course, I really hadn't enjoyed hanging my one hundred and ten pound body from my wrists either. For a while I was forced to watch as they were all pulled out of their sacks. Once about half of them were pulled from their sacks, mostly by Gandalf, the others went to untying the ones who were practically glued to the spit. I groaned lowly as the pain continued to radiate through my arms. I really needed to get down from the tree. It happened the moment that Kili was freed.

He broke into a dash and instantly ran after me. "Leah!" Kili cried breathlessly.

"Please get me down," I begged softly.

"Alright." Kili stood underneath me and glanced up pathetically. "How are we going to do this?" he asked himself.

"Come on," Fili said, dashing up to us.

"Stand underneath me," I said, figuring out a plan.

A moment afterwards, Fili caught on to my plan. Kili did as well, taking his place. "Hook your legs around my shoulders," Fili said.

"Okay," I breathed.

As Fili came to stand underneath me, I used my remaining strength to raise my legs and then seat them over Fili's shoulders. I looped them back so that Fili could reach up and tighten his grip over my thighs. It was a good thing that he was a taller dwarf. His grip was oddly tight, but he was ensuring that I wasn't going to fall and hurt myself even more. Standing behind us, Kili pulled his bow off of his back and nocked an arrow, aiming at the rope that was holding me to the tree.

"Don't move, Leah," Kili warned.

"Do you honestly think that I can move right now?" I snapped, more aggravated with the situation than I was with him.

Kili's face flushed slightly. "Right. Sorry," he said dumbly.

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Kili pull back an arrow and reach up to fire it. The moment that he released the arrow, it split the rope that was holding my in place and I felt a tremendous strain come off of my arms. I dropped them down to my sides, also feeling the tension in my back fade, feeling immediately about fifty times better. Kili then dropped his bow and moved to stand behind Fili. I felt my head spinning, woozy from the blood loss.

"Alright, drop her," Kili ordered Fili. "I've got you."

"Ready?" Fili asked, his hands tightening on me.

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"There you go," Fili said.

He loosened his grip on me slightly as he took a step forward. I let gravity do most of the work as I loosened my thighs from around Fili's shoulders and fell back into Kili's arms. He very easily caught me bridal style as my head instantly rolled back against Kili's chest. Instead of immediately dropping me to the ground to check on me, he merely held me tightly in his arms. A second later, Fili walked over to the two of us, brushing the sweaty hairs off of my forehead.

"Are you alright?" Fili asked.

"I'm fucking awesome," I groaned.

A second later, I saw Thorin walk up to us. He didn't touch me, but he was staring closely at my bloody and rubbed-raw wrists. "Bandage up her wrists. They'll get infected if you leave them," Thorin ordered.

"I'll take care of it," Kili told his uncle. "Can I let you down?"

"Please," I said.

Kili very slowly kneeled down to the ground and rested me down in the dirt. My head very slowly rolled back to drive against the ground. My head was spinning. I could tell that I had lost a lot more blood than either one of us had been expecting. I hadn't thought that it was as bad as it really was. My wrists were rubbed raw and blood trails ran all the way up my arms. The skin was pink all around my arms and starting to turn red with some very painful blisters.

"Does it hurt?" Kili asked.

"Well it doesn't exactly feel good," I said, snorting under my breath. "I'll manage."

Oin dropped by my other side. "May I take a look, my dear?" he asked.

"Yes, please." A healer was exactly what I needed. Kili made a move to leave but I reached out an arm and grabbed his leg. He moved his hand over mine. "Wait a second. Will you stay?" I asked. "I have a feeling that this won't be entirely painless."

"As long as you need me," Kili promised.

"Thank you," I breathed.

"Take a breath, dear. The salve will calm down the inflamed skin, but it won't feel good," Oin informed me.

"Do your worst," I groaned.

His worst was definitely more than I had been expecting. The first step was peeling off the bits of rope that were still stuck in the inflamed parts of my skin. That was definitely the worst part. Peeling off the rope was the worst part. I felt the bits of skin coming off. At least it was the already broken parts. That skin would have eventually come off anyways. I groaned deeply and grabbed the dirt on the ground in between my fingers, something that Oin instantly ordered me not to do.

Eventually, once the rope was completely removed from my wrist and it had been cleaned, Oin placed the ointment that he had brought on the journey against my wrists. I tried to think about something funny, maybe laugh at his name, but the pain from the ointment was overwhelming. It was all because of the way that it was going into the open wounds. I dropped my head back in searing pain as it was rubbed into the wounds as Kili reached out to grab the hand that Oin wasn't working on.

It took him a long time to completely clean out the skin and wrap it in the bandages that he had brought with him. We had a lot, since I was the first person to manage to get injured. Of course. Even when Oin was working on both of my hands at the same time, Kili would place a hand on either my shoulder or my waist. As Oin continued to work - having been one of the first dwarves freed - the rest of the dwarves were slowly freed by those who already had been.

Once Oin had finally finished cleaning up my arms, Oin gave me a gentle smile and laid a hand on my shoulder. "I'll change the bandages when it's time," Oin promised.

"Thank you, Oin," I said as sweetly as possible.

He was trying to help me. No use being a giant asshole to him just because I was in pain. "You're welcome, my dear. Let me know if the pain gets worse," Oin said.

"Oh, trust me, you'll know," I snorted.

As Oin walked off, Kili smiled and grabbed my hand gently, kneeling down at my side. "Feeling any better?" he asked.

"Maybe once someone gives me new hands," I teased.

"I like them just the way that they are," Kili said, holding them tightly.

"Thanks," I said, blushing as he gently pressed his lips against my hands. But a moment later I remembered something. "You're so useless. You couldn't have come just a little bit sooner?"

"We ran as fast as we could!" Kili gasped.

"And as fast as you could was a little too slow," I snapped.

"Perhaps I can make it up to you," Kili said.

"By doing what?"

"Giving you that present."

"Are you going to tell me what the present is?"

I'd always been a curious person, but I was extremely curious right now. "When the time comes, I promise that I will give you the best present that I can think of," Kili teased.

"Do you already have it in mind?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Kili said, smiling slyly.

"So give it to me now," I said.

"When the moment is right."

The right moment. Something that usually had a romantic connotation. Did it right now? "After having almost been eaten by trolls, having been tied to a tree by my wrists for the entire night, and having an extraordinarily painful salve being put on me - that isn't the right moment?" I asked playfully.

"No," Kili said.

"You're so unfair," I whined.

"It'll be worth it, I promise."

"Just like you promised to be fast?" I asked grouchily.

"Oh, stop whining."

That comment was something that struck me as a little bit funny. It wasn't something that I had ever heard Kili said. Not even something like it. I screwed up my face in confusion. That was something that I had used to say when I had been first introduced to the company. I had said it to Fili and Kili a number of times when we had first gotten underway. Perhaps he was finally starting to pick up on some of my sayings and habits from the old world.

"Isn't that something that I say?" I asked curiously.

Kili gave me a soft smile. "I think that you may be starting to rub off on me, Leah Ambrose," he said.

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked curiously.

Was I really that strange? Kili smiled. "That's a wonderful thing." We both smiled as Kili leaned down and brushed the stray baby hairs back off of my forehead. "Can you get up?" Kili eventually asked.

"Yeah," I said, starting to fight to lean up. "I want to get up anyways."

"Come on. We'll get you breakfast soon," Kili promised.

"Perfect," I said happily.

Food was definitely something that I wanted right now. Food and to beat the life out of someone. Kili gave me a hand back to my feet as he wrapped an arm around my waist. I said nothing, gritting my teeth through the pain, as he pulled one of my arms to loop over his shoulder. His hand wound around my back to rest at my waist to try and help keep me supported. The two of us walked back over to where the rest of the company were finally getting themselves together.

At the moment it looked like Bombur was currently being the last one freed. "You don't have to hang around me. I'll be alright," I told Kili, who was looking towards Fili and Thorin.

"If you're certain," Kili said slowly.

"I can manage, Kili. I promise. I'm not that useless," I teased.

The two of us smiled at each other again. As Kili slowly released me, one of his hands traveled up to run a hand over the braid that he had helped me do this morning. It made me smile slightly, the moment of comfort. His fingers gently rubbed against my chin and throat as he moved his hands up. As he moved away, he eventually let his hand fall from my hair. It took me a few moments to gather my bearings and head back towards the rest of the company.

By now I had finally realized that it was actually morning. We must have been dealing with the trolls and aftermath for at least eight hours. Eight hours that I should have spent sleeping. I debated on checking on Bilbo for a moment, but I was diverted by Gandalf at the last moment. He walked up to one of the troll statues - William, I thought - as thumped on the head with his staff with a pleased smile on his face. Did he know that he would pass by these exact same trolls in another fifty years?

As I walked up to him, Gandalf turned to me with a bright smile. "Miss Ambrose. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better, thanks. Oin is a good healer," I said.

"That he is," Gandalf said absentmindedly.

"Thanks for taking your sweet time getting here," I snapped.

My words clearly didn't affect him one way or another. "It's exactly like you imagined it would be. You all made an excellent attack with the dwarves against the trolls and no one was injured," Gandalf said.

My jaw dropped. "Have you not seen my wrists?" I hissed.

"The salve will heal them in no time."

"You are so useless, Gandalf the Grey."

Gandalf turned to me with a look that was almost offended. "Now that's not completely true. I might be a little more useful than you think," Gandalf pointed out.

"We'll see," I mumbled.

The two of us were staring at each other for a good few seconds. Gandalf had a nice smile on his face as I scowled at him. In the meantime, Thorin walked over towards us. His gaze instantly turned to me. "How are your arms?" Thorin asked.

"They're already feeling better. Get some food in me and I'll be good to go," I said, trying not to be the whiny girl.

"We'll sit for breakfast soon," Thorin promised.

"Good to hear," I mumbled.

"Where did you go to, if I may ask?" Thorin asked Gandalf.

"To look ahead."

"What brought you back?"

"Looking behind," Gandalf said slowly. Thorin gave a smile, essentially admitting that Gandalf had done the right thing. "Nasty business. Still, they are all in one piece."

"No thanks to your burglar," Thorin pointed out.

"He had the nous to play for time. As did Miss Ambrose, unless I am mistaken," Gandalf said, giving me a pointed look. "None of the rest of you thought of that."

Honestly I had thought that Thorin would say something about how I had been just as useless as Bilbo had. But he didn't. Maybe because I was standing there or maybe it was because Gandalf was here, and Thorin tried not to argue with Gandalf. I noticed that Thorin looked maybe the slightest bit repentant as Gandalf turned to look at the troll statues. I slowly moved towards Thorin, knowing that he felt like a fool for being so quick to insult Bilbo.

"Honestly, we didn't really know what would work. We were just trying to make sure that we didn't get eaten," I said.

"It was a good idea," Gandalf said.

"Thank you," I chirped.

But Gandalf had already moved on to the issue of the trolls. "They must have come down from the Ettenmoors," Gandalf pointed out.

What the fuck are the Ettenmoors? I nodded, pretending like I knew what he was talking about. "Since when do mountain trolls venture this far south?" Thorin asked.

"Oh, not for an age, not since a darker power ruled these lands," Gandalf said.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Gandalf was no longer looking at either one of us. Instead he was glancing towards the ground. Clearly he had just realized something. If the trolls came down here, it meant that there was something darker that had dragged them out here. Could this have really been the beginning of Sauron's rise to power? Gandalf and Thorin looked meaningfully at each other, having practically forgotten about me.

"So why were they down here?" I asked curiously.

"I am unsure," Gandalf said slowly.

Come on, Gandalf. Put it together. This could be my chance to stop the War of the One Ring, or whatever it was called. "Could it be something dangerous in their old home?" I asked.

"That is very likely. They could not have moved in daylight," Gandalf said.

"There must be a cave nearby," Thorin said.

That was enough to kick everyone into motion. We all headed back over towards the rest of the company, altering them to start looking for wherever the troll cave was. I noticed that Fili and Kili were both staying very close to me during our search. Clearly they were both worried that I might pass out at any given second. Honestly, maybe I would. I was staggering a little bit. Kili clearly noticed, since he walked over and looped an arm behind my back, ensuring that I wasn't going to fall or pass out.

"Remember when I told you that I wasn't planning on being a damsel in distress on this trip?" I asked Kili.

He glanced down at me and nodded. "I do."

"Can we just ignore today?"

"You kept me from being eaten. I would say that it warrants you as anything but a damsel in distress."

I smiled up at him. "Fair enough."

The entire company searched about, and soon found the marks of trolls' stony boots going away through the trees. We all glanced at each other and nodded. We had to find out what they were hiding. So, just the slightest bit nervous, we followed the tracks up the hill, until we came upon a large opening in the stone that lead down to a cave. Giving Thorin and Gandalf a final look, they nodded at us and we made the descent into it.

There were bones on the floor and a nasty smell was in the air; but there was a good deal of food jumbled carelessly on shelves and on the ground, among an untidy litter of plunder, of all sorts from brass buttons to pots full of gold coins standing in a corner. We all stared at them incredulously. Through the darkness was a glitter of gold. The trolls were wealthier than my family because they kept eating people who stumbled across them. Which, I realized with a hint of horror, was how they had gotten all of this.

There were lots of clothes, too, hanging on the walls - too small for trolls. It must have been from the victims that they had eaten. They must have stripped their victims before they ate them. Gross. Were they planning on doing that to all of us? Among the clothes that they had taken were several swords of various makes, shapes, and sizes. As I was one of the first people into the cave, I headed over to them first. Two caught my eyes particularly, because of their beautiful scabbards and jeweled hilts.

"Oh, what's that stench?" Nori groaned.

"It's a troll hoard. Be careful what you touch," Gandalf warned.

Was it because they had done something to these objects? Were they cursed? It kept me from touching something. "They actually fit in here?" I asked Gandalf, referring to the trolls.

It seemed too small for them. "Trolls are surprisingly nimble," Gandalf explained.

Some of the dwarves were holding torches, making it a little bit easier to see the further back that we made it into the troll cave. Many of the dwarves couldn't handle the stench. They were coughing and retching at the pungent smells. So was I, but I really wanted to see the moment that Thorin got Orcrist. I kneeled down by some of the gold, wishing instead that it was a few hundred dollar bills. I could have used a nice shopping spree.

"Jesus Christ. That's disgusting," I groaned, spotting the bones of who appeared to have been a solider.

"Damned trolls," Fili coughed, covering his mouth.

"Do they normally smell like this?" I asked.

"Honestly, my dear, they normally smell much worse," Bofur said.

"How the hell does anyone live like this?" I asked.

"They're trolls," Fili pointed out.

"What kind of excuse is that?" I asked.

At the same moment, Bofur found something that quickly caused him to get over his disgust. "Seems a shame just to leave it lyin' around. Anyone could take it," Bofur said, kicking around some gold coins.

"Agreed. Nori, get a shovel," Gloin said.

"Are you sure that it's worth it?" I asked curiously.

Gandalf's words were still lingering in the back of my mind. What if all of this stuff was cursed? Was it such a good idea to start taking it with us? This whole journey was doomed enough. They gave me a look that was as if to ask me if I had lost my mind. I merely shrugged my shoulders and walked off towards Thorin. He had found the two blades - both covered in cobwebs - that I had been looking at earlier. I smiled softly as I approached from behind him, Gandalf not far behind me.

"That's beautiful," I said, coming to stand next to him. "Seems to be made for a king."

Thorin glanced over at me and gave me a long glance. But I smiled, giving him a pointed stare. Thorin merely nodded slowly at me. He then reached back and grabbed a thin-handled sword, similar to the one that Gandalf would give Bilbo that was against the wall. It was clearly another one of the swords that was made by the elves. It was definitely small and light enough for me. The one that I had been using so far on the few occasions that I had trained with Dwalin and Fili were far too large for me.

"This should fit you better," Thorin said, handing it off to me.

I smiled, taking the sword and tucking it into the scabbard that was hanging from my waist. "Thank you." Thorin nodded and glanced back to his own sword. "Are you going to take that one?" I asked.

"I have not yet decided," Thorin said, still staring at it.

"Where do you suppose the trolls got those from?" I asked curiously.

"These swords were not made by any troll," Thorin said.

Because of the movie, I already knew that they were made by the elves. But I didn't remember for the life of me which ones had made it. All that I could remember was that they were quite old. Definitely older than any of us standing right here. Except maybe Gandalf. I didn't know how old he was. Thorin handed off the sword that had been lying next to his to Gandalf and kept the other one that he had been staring at for the past few moments.

"Nor were they made by any smith among men," Gandalf said.

It appeared that neither one of them really knew whose these were. I knew that they were made from elves, but I didn't dare say anything, knowing that it wasn't my place to speak. So I merely watched as Gandalf stared at the sword. Gandalf drew the sword a few inches out of its sheath and briefly blew away the cobwebs. He stared at the hilt of the sword, giving it an almost surprised glance as he turned it over again.

"These were forged in Gondolin by the High Elves of the First Age," Gandalf explained.

Thorin had been just about to pull his own sword out of his sheath. In fact, I had thought that he would. Perhaps he would get over the fact that they weren't made by any man or dwarf or troll. But he hated the elves and likely always would. The moment that he realized that they were made by elves, Thorin started to put the sword away in disgust. He was halfway to dropping the sword back in the urn where he had found it when Gandalf spoke again.

"You could not wish for a finer blade."

It was almost a warning. I walked up to Thorin and dared to lay a hand on his shoulder. He glanced at me curiously. "Just because you hold onto one of their swords doesn't mean that you have to like them. Plus, you can always see it and laugh about the fact that the elves who previously had it were probably eaten by the trolls," I said.

He didn't always like my sense of humor about things - in fact, he almost always seemed to hate my sense of humor - but today it seemed that he didn't. Maybe because it was at the expense of the elves. To my surprise, Thorin gave something almost akin to a smile. Reluctantly, Thorin decided to hold onto the sword. Once I released his shoulder, he quickly drew the sword out of its sheath a few inches as well. Deciding to follow suit, I did the same. It looked like a smaller version of Thorin's.

"A lovely blade in its own right," Gandalf said of mine.

"It's light," I said curiously.

Was that something that the elves had done deliberately? "Perfect for someone your size. Treat it well," Gandalf said.

"Yeah, I will," I said blankly.

Gandalf then walked off and I smiled after him. Thorin as well. I was actually rather happy to have the sword. It was one of my own, not just one that I was borrowing from the others for a few minutes. It really did feel right to have this one in my hands. I reached back and twirled it in my hands in the same way that Kili had done when he had first attacked the trolls. I raised a brow at myself curiously. I hadn't even known that I could do that. I could barely hold their swords sometimes.

Twirling the sword in my hands a few times, I turned back to see Kili looking at me curiously. "Where did you find that?" he asked.

"Believe it or not, Thorin found it for me," I said.

Kili held out a hand and I gave him the sword. He turned it over in his hands a few times. "That was surprisingly nice of him. It's a lovely blade, good for anyone," Kili said.

"Made by elves, you know," I commented.

Kili glanced up in shock. "Thorin is holding onto a blade that was made by elves?"

"It doesn't seem that he wants one of them, but it's like Gandalf said, he couldn't find a better blade than that."

Kili nodded blankly. When he handed me the sword back, he gave me a coy smile. I arched an eyebrow. "Perhaps one day you'll allow me to teach you," Kili offered.

"The bow, the sword, what next?" I teased.

"I suppose that time will tell," Kili shot back.

Our personalities were slowly getting a little more playful. More banter-filled as well. Was something happening between us? I couldn't tell. It felt like I was in middle school again and stuck with my first crush, who I couldn't dare admit that I had feelings for. Giving myself a little eye-roll, I smiled as Kili and walked off, staring at the others. Gloin, Bofur, and Nori were filling one of the smaller chests with treasure, lowering it into a hole where they could bury it.

"You do know that there will be an entire city full of treasure once we get to Erebor?" I said.

"Just in case, lassie," Gloin said.

"Always good to have a backup plan," Bofur added.

"That's true, I suppose," I mumbled.

Perhaps it wasn't a half bad idea. I would have taken some stuff myself, but when I got back to my own world it wouldn't matter much. Gold really wasn't worth all too much money these days. So I merely stood back and watched with a small smile as the rest of the dwarves started heading back out of the cave. I had a feeling that none of them wanted to smell it anymore. I didn't either. In the background, Thorin was examining Orcrist. Dwalin was looking at the others in disgust.

"We're makin' a long term deposit," Gloin explained to him.

Dwalin scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Let's get out of this foul place. Come on, let's go," Thorin snapped, turning to leave the cave. "Bofur! Gloin! Nori!"

The dwarves turned back to look at me and see if I would follow. "Go on. I'll be right there," I said.

They gave me a long look but nodded anyways. The three of them headed out of the cave, following Dwalin and Thorin. Gandalf and I were some of the last ones left. I hung back, knowing what was about to happen. Something else that I wanted to be around for. On our way out of the cave, Gandalf stepped on something metallic. He moved back, brushing aside the leaves beneath him with his staff. Laying there was another sword. Bilbo's. He used his staff to pull the sword slightly out of the sheath.

"I think we both know who that should belong to," I whispered.

Gandalf leaned down and picked the sword up, staring at it curiously. "Yes, my dear, I think we do," he said.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment as I nodded. Gandalf gave me a curious look and I shrugged my shoulders. He knew that I knew what was happening. He gave me a hand to help me out of the cave as the two of us headed after the others. I nearly smacked my head on the stone roof of the cave upon exiting and groaned. How the hell had the trolls done that every day? Ignoring my own complaints, I followed Gandalf towards where Bilbo was.

"Bilbo," Gandalf called.

"Hmm?" Bilbo asked, turning back.

"Here," Gandalf said, handing the sword over to Bilbo. "This is about your size."

Bilbo took the sword hesitantly, staring down at it. "I can't take this," Bilbo said, trying to hand it back.

"The blade is of elvish make which means it will glow blue when orcs or goblins are nearby," Gandalf said.

"I have never used a sword in my life," Bilbo pointed out.

Giving Bilbo a serious look, Gandalf said, "And I hope you never have to. But if you do, remember this: true courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one."

Gandalf and Bilbo exchanged a very important look and I smiled. "Take it, Bilbo. You should have it, just in case," I said.

He pulled the sword from the sheath, pointing the blade down towards the ground. "What do you think?" Bilbo asked.

"I think that it suits you," I said.

"Thank you, Leah," Bilbo said.

We both smiled as Thorin called for us to get a move on. So we carried out the pots of coins, and such food as was untouched and looked fit to eat, also one barrel of ale which was still full. At Fili and Kili's insistence, of course. By that time we felt like breakfast, and being very hungry we did not turn our noses up at what we had got from the trolls' larder. Our own provisions were very scanty. Now we had bread and cheese, and plenty of ale, and bacon to toast in the embers of the fire.

Which worked just fine for me. I missed bacon. About halfway through the meal though, something occurred to me. To my surprise, Radagast never appeared. I remembered that he was supposed to come right after Gandalf handed Bilbo his sword. We were supposed to hear him coming. But hours had passed since we had left and we had yet to meet him. Where the hell was he? Was I possibly getting things wrong? Did he not come immediately after the trolls?

For a little while I thought about asking Gandalf where Radagast was, but I realized something else while I was eating my breakfast. The entire thing made perfect sense. The actual content was going by what had happened in the films, but the time was coinciding with what had happened in the book, seeing as Peter Jackson had been forced to cut out a lot of the books due to time constraints. The movies had skipped over weeks and months of the journey sometimes and shortened each scene.

With the exception of the Battle of the Five Armies. Hadn't that just been really short in the book? I supposed that it didn't matter quite yet. Right now, Radagast was the problem. Perhaps there was still a little ways to go before Radagast would even arrive. Was he even in the book? I couldn't remember. I really wished that I had read the book a little more growing up. But I had always preferred Harry Potter. See how useful that was, Leah?

"Leah?" Kili asked, distracting me from my thoughts. "Are you alright?"

"Fine. Just off in my own little world," I mumbled dumbly.

"How are your wrists?" Kili asked.

"Still a little tender, but they're getting better. Should be fine in another day or two," I said hopefully.

"Good."

"Want to teach me how to use my new sword tomorrow?" I asked suddenly.

Kili glanced over at me curiously. "For once you're offering to train?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I shoved his shoulder. He chuckled. "Well if I'm going to have a sword as nice-looking as this one, I had better not disgrace it by not knowing how to use it," I said, tapping the handle lovingly.

"I would be honored to teach you," Kili said playfully.

The two of us smiled at each other, only broken by Thorin's voice. "Get some sleep, all of you. We'll leave at first light tomorrow."

"Finally, something I can get behind," I said happily.

All of the dwarves sitting nearest smiled at me. No one had been particularly happy that our nights had been interrupted. We had all wanted some time to sleep. So we all went to laying out our things for the night. Day. Whatever. I placed myself in between Fili and Kili, as I normally did. I really did need some sleep. The trolls had taken more of me than I was expecting, mostly because I didn't have my bow and had been forced to actually fight them.

But there was also the issue that it was weird to try and go to sleep in the middle of the morning. Especially seeing as the sun was streaming through the trees. So I decided to stay awake for a little while and chat with the two brothers, mostly telling them how useless they had been. I was right that the two of them had been goofing around and not paying attention, and that was when the trolls had snatched the first two of our ponies. I rolled my eyes at their incompetence.

Eventually, as the afternoon starting moving on, the entire company started drifting off to sleep. No one was really keeping watch, seeing as it was the middle of the day and everyone was too tired to stay awake anyways. Although Gandalf did seem to be staying awake. I ended up being one of the first ones out like a light. I had accidentally fallen asleep right while Kili was in the middle of talking to me.

When I eventually woke up, it was the middle of the afternoon. "Well I didn't think that I was that boring," Kili's teasing voice echoed.

Laughing softly, I turned over to drive my head into the dirt when I realized that I was not on my pillow. I was on his shoulder. Again. "Sorry, I'm a little tired because someone took too long to get help," I teased.

"Well you are the one that got caught," Kili shot back.

"You're the one that looked away from the ponies!"

"That was Fili's fault."

"I'm telling him that you said that when he wakes up," I said. Kili laughed, shoving my face off to the side. I laughed softly as I moved back up onto his shoulder. "Thanks for at least being a good pillow."

"Ah, so that's the only reason that you sleep near me," Kili said.

"Exactly. Why else would I want to be so close to you?"

"Oh, I could think of a few other reasons."

There was a devious smile on his face that almost surprised me. I guess all men are the same. "You know, you're exactly the kind of boy that my mother warned me to stay away from," I teased.

Kili gave one of his award-winning smiles. "But yet you're here anyways," he pointed out.

"I always did like breaking the rules."

"I knew that you were a troublemaker."

"You're one to talk."

The two of us smiled at each other as I tucked my head into his shoulder. I realized that the rest of the company was still fast asleep. "You should get some more sleep," Kili eventually said.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'll go back to sleep soon," Kili answered.

"Can I really trust to go back to sleep and have you not do anything to me?" I said slowly.

Kili glanced down at me in surprise. "What do you think that I'll do to you?" Kili asked.

It was a classic case of whipped cream in my hand and a feather across my nose. But I knew that he wouldn't know what that meant. "Oh, I don't know. Perhaps take some charcoal from out of your pockets and draw a mustache onto my face while I sleep so that I have no idea why everyone else is laughing at me," I said blandly.

For a moment Kili just stared at me and said nothing. Once more I had said something crazy that related back to the old world and Kili had no idea what I was talking about. But, to my surprise, eventually he started to smile. Just the way that he had done so many times before. Eventually we both broke out into bursts of laughter, quickly getting shushed by the others, who were trying to sleep. I tucked my head into Kili's shoulder as he tucked his head into my hair, both of us trying to stop laughing.

Eventually we managed to sober, although we were still having a hard time keeping an even face. "That's a good one. I'll have to remember that." I smiled at him and nodded. "Perhaps you'd like to search me?" Kili asked teasingly.

He waggled his eyebrows playfully. "Yeah, you'd like that," I shot back.

Just like we had before, the two of us stared at each other for a moment. We were both clearly surprised at how forward we had been. I had done so plenty of times before, but not with Kili. He had just had one brief moment of banter like that with Tauriel in the film. I blushed after a beat when I realized that Thorin was awake and watching us with narrowed eyes. Embarrassed at the moment, I dropped my head back into Kili's shoulder and pretended to be asleep. He did the same.

But after a few minutes, Kili leaned down to my ear and whispered, "I would."

His voice was slightly deeper than I had been expecting it to be. And I knew what that meant. So I merely blushed madly and drove my head down into Kili's shoulder. He chuckled softly, knowing that he had gotten to me, as his arms wound a little tighter underneath my waist. Our feet were just barely grazing against each other's. After a few minutes, I threw an arm over his waist as his other hand gently brushed against my arms. I really was more comfortable here than I had been for a long while.

After a little while of embarrassment, I drifted off to sleep. We slept through the next few hours in peace until Kili once more woke me up by shaking my shoulder lightly. I peeled my eyes open and smiled up at him. It was rather tough for the two of us to untangle ourselves from each other. I could tell that the rest of the dwarves didn't like how close the two of us slept. As we woke up, Fili gave me a knowing smirk but otherwise remained silent.

It made me perfectly happy, because I really didn't want any of them talking to me about my very obvious crush on Kili. And I really didn't want them talking to him about it either. That would only make things worse between the two of us. We were already embarrassed enough by each other. So once we were all up and about the day, I ensured that I kept my distance from Kili, for a while, at least. Perhaps until they stopped giving me the look.

We all slept happily, for our nights had been disturbed; and we did nothing more until the afternoon, which was just fine by me. Then we brought up our ponies, and carried away the pots of gold, and buried them very secretly not far from the track by the river, with Gandalf putting a great many spells over them, just in case we ever had the chance to come back and recover them. When that was done, we all mounted once more, and rode along again on the path towards the East.

"So, Gandalf, where exactly did you go?" I asked after a few hours.

Gandalf turned back to me curiously. "I went on to spy out our road. It will soon become dangerous and difficult," Gandalf said. Like it wasn't already dangerous... "Also I was anxious about replenishing our small stock of provisions. I had not gone very far, however, when I met a couple of friends of mine from Rivendell."

"Where's that?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"Don't interrupt!" Gandalf cried suddenly. "You will get there in a few days now, if we're lucky, and find out all about it. As I was saying I met two of Elrond's people. They were hurrying along for fear of the trolls. It was they who told me that three of them had come down from the mountains and settled in the woods not far from the road: they had frightened everyone away from the district, and they waylaid strangers.

"I immediately had a feeling that I was wanted back. Looking behind I saw a fire in the distance and made for it. So now you know. Please be more careful, next time, or we shall never get anywhere!"

Well he did have a fair point about that much. We really did have to start being a little more careful or else we would never even make it to Rivendell. After all, in the movie, weren't we all supposed to be there already? It was strange just being here. As much as Thorin really hated the elves, I was excited to get there soon. It might be nice to eat some real food, sleep in a real bed, and get a chance to bathe for just a day. Or were they there even longer in the book? I didn't remember.

"Thank you," Thorin said tersely.

But that was also the same moment that I remembered something else. "Excuse me, did you say that we would get to Rivendell in a few days?" I asked Gandalf sharply.

It was that long in the book? "Yes, Miss Ambrose. Is there a problem?" Gandalf asked.

"N - No. I just thought that we were closer. Like, within a few hours," I stuttered dumbly.

"What would give you that thought?" Gandalf asked curiously.

"Oh, I guess it's just because I can't read a map," I said stupidly.

"Read a map?" Fili repeated.

"Zip it," I snapped.

"What?" Fili asked.

"It means stop talking!" I barked.

Fili scowled at me playfully. "Oh, Leah. I'm offended by you," he said.

"Please," I scoffed. "I think that your head could use some shrinking."

"Should I even bother asking you what that means?" Fili asked.

One of these days I was just going to make them a list to translate all of the sayings that I used that they didn't understand. "It means that you're analyzing someone and also keeping them from getting a little too big-headed. Make a little more sense now?" I asked.

Fili sat on his horse thoughtfully for a moment. "I think that you should have your head shrank," he finally said.

"I really wish that I hadn't taught you that," I groaned.

"Mistake on your part, Miss Ambrose," he teased.

We were not going back to the Miss Ambrose thing. "You're such a pain in the ass," I said.

But he knew that I was just kidding. Fili was one of my favorite people on the journey so far and was one of the few that had never disliked me. So the two of us laughed and smiled at each other. But honestly it was about the only time that we had smiled at each other that day. It didn't take long for us to start having a terrible time all over again. We were all tired and still upset about the troll debacle, even after having gotten to sleep for a little while.

Unlike the rest of our earlier parts of the journey, we did not sing or tell stories that day, even though the weather improved; nor the next day, nor the day after. Day after day passed with no sign that we were getting closer to Rivendell. We had begun to feel that danger was not far away on either side. We camped under the stars, and our horses had more to eat than they had; for there was plenty of grass, but there was not much in our bags anymore, even with what we had gotten from the trolls.

Ultimately a few days had passed since the troll attack and there was still no word of Radagast. I was right in thinking about the way that this was all working out. The actual events were following the pace of the movie with what it had covered. Which was good, since they spoke and acted a little more modernly. But there were bits of the book thrown in, especially with the timing, since we were supposed to be out here for over a year. I supposed that it made sense.

"Leah?" Kili called.

"Hmm?" I asked, glancing up from Misty's back.

"I do believe that you owe me something."

My head shot up towards him. "Excuse me? Aren't you the one who owes me a present?" I asked snappily.

He definitely owed me a present before I owed him anything. "Don't rush things. I'll give you your present," Kili teased. "In the meantime, you owe me something."

"And riddle me that, what do I owe you?" I asked curiously.

"A song," Kili said.

"What?"

When had we said anything about a song? "Didn't you promise me before the start of the journey that for each time I gave you an archery lesson, you would give me a song? I believe you owe me quite a number," Kili pointed out.

Searching the far corner of my brain, I realized that Kili was right. For once, I was the one who had backed out of a promise. I had promised him, the day that we had met each other, that I liked singing, just not in front of other people. I had made him that promise a little later in the night. Why the hell had I done that? Like a complete moron... I blushed softly, realizing that I had never really sung in front of someone before. Not even my parents. Only Harley, once or twice when we were kids.

"You really want to hear me sing?" I asked bashfully.

"I would love that," Kili said.

"What do you want to hear?"

"Whatever you like."

"I really have to do this?"

"I do believe that you have made me a promise."

Damn it, he was right. I really did have to sing him a song. It was only fair. He had lived up to his promises to me. It was my turn. "Maybe when we go training. I'm not going to sing with everyone else listening in," I said dumbly.

"Okay. I can hold you up to that," Kili said.

"Another one of my sayings?" I asked happily.

Kili laughed softly. "What can I say? You are slowly starting to rub off on me."

"One of these days I'll have to start acquiring the sayings that you use."

"Like?"

Most of the things that he said to me were things that I would never be able to mimic properly. "Well I would say something in Khuzdul, but I doubt that Thorin would like that very much," I said honestly.

It would be fascinating to learn, but Thorin would kill whoever taught me it. "What if I teach you something small? Something that you must promise to never tell Thorin that I told you," Kili said softly.

The two of us fell behind the rest of the company to speak in hushed tones. "Are you sure?" I asked carefully.

I didn't want either one of us to get in trouble with the others. "Yes," Kili said.

"Okay, tell me."

The two of us lapsed into silence for a while as Kili thought about what it was that he wanted to tell me. Was there anything that I even knew? The only thing that I knew was the thing that Fili so often said. Little brother. I couldn't even mimic that one. I just knew it when I heard it. Honestly I couldn't mimic anything in Khuzdul. They spoke it so fast that there was no way to pick out words. Finally Kili seemed to settle on what he wanted to say as he turned to me with a smile.

"Amrâlimê," Kili said.

Probably just because of the way that the word sounded, it came out as almost a purr. "What does it mean?" I asked softly.

"I will tell you that when I give you my gift," Kili said happily.

He was grinning softly. "What?" I asked, my jaw flapping open. "That's not fair!"

"Ah, life isn't fair my dear Leah," Kili shot back.

Another one of my sayings that he had stolen from me, now being used against me. "Well... I guess I deserved that, as much as I would love to punch you for it," I growled.

The two of us smiled at each other as I tried to keep from laughing. There was something in his smile that told me that I really would have liked whatever he had just told me, had I understood what the hell it meant. Before I got the chance to harass him about it and ask what it meant again, Thorin barked at us to ride faster. I realized that we were slowly falling further behind, engrossed with each other and not steering our ponies. We both laughed as I dug my heels into Misty's side and she took off.

She galloped well ahead of the rest of the company as the wind whipped through my hair, allowing me to take the lead. We spent much of the rest of the afternoon looking for a place to rest. We would very likely be stopping early again tonight, since we still hadn't gotten back on the right track or fully recovered after our night of fighting with the trolls. In fact, even I was tired. So I stopped cantering ahead of everyone else and took the downtime to lean back against Misty's mane.

As the sun hit a low point in the sky - peeking right over the tops of the mountains - I had Ori show me how to draw them just a little bit better. I really wanted to be able to draw them the way that he did. I certainly wasn't that good at landscapes, but his were incredibly realistic. My people were better. So I ended up having more fun just watching Ori draw as Nori and Dori explained to me that Ori might not have been a good fight, but he was a wondrous writer and artist.

Eventually we all stopped in a small clearing just off of the side of the road. It was a good rest for us as we tried to get back to our normal routines. We had dinner - made by Bombur, as usual - and eventually started settling in. I took a spot on the ground as I started sharpening my arrows. It was something to keep my mind off what Kili had told me in Khuzdul. In the meantime, Kili seemed to be in a deep conversation with Fili, Thorin, Dwalin, and Balin.

So I said nothing and kept to myself. He was the person that I needed to speak to, not any of the rest of them. So I merely sat on my roll and waited for him to come over to me. Instead of chatting away like usual, I searched the far corners of my mind to wonder what it could have been that Kili had told me. I couldn't for the life of me imagine what it had meant. I barely remembered what it was that he had said. I debated on asking someone else but, just in case, I kept it to myself.

"Ready?" Kili asked.

Glancing up, I nodded at him. I had almost forgotten about our promise. "That time already?" I asked. Kili nodded. "Sure."

"Ready to give me my song?" Kili asked.

"Still not giving up on that?" I groaned.

"You made me that promise before we even left on the adventure. I've let you off quite easily if you think about it."

Scoffing huffily, I shoved Kili off to the side, making him laugh. "Oh, please, you big pain in the ass. You owe me a sword lesson when all of this is over," I snapped.

"You really want to learn?"

"Yeah. I've got this now and I want to learn how to use it."

"You'll also have to name it."

"Name it?" I repeated dumbly.

Name it something like Maria? That would have been good. "Yes. All swords have to earn names from their owner. Usually after they have been in battle for the first time," Kili explained.

Right... Sting... Orcrist... Duh. "Any suggestions?" I asked.

"Oh, no, the choice will be yours," Kili said.

Naming things. One of my few weaknesses. "Oh, man, I wasn't even good at naming my cat," I groaned.

"You had a cat?" Kili asked curiously.

My cat that I literally didn't miss even the slightest bit. After all of the many times that she had bitten me. "I did, when I was a kid. My mother and father let me name my cat when I first got her. She was adorable," which had turned out to be a big lie, "but I really wanted a dog. So I named her Dog."

"You had a cat named Dog?" Kili asked.

"Yes," I said awkwardly.

It was not one of my wisest moments when I was a child. It was one of my more moronic decisions. We both started laughing at each other after a few moments. Kili knew that it was as stupid as I did. I realized rather embarrassingly how stupid I had probably sounded when I had told him that. Honestly, I really shouldn't have admitted how foolish I was when I was ten. At least he seemed to think that it was more endearing than stupid.

"Did you ever get a dog?" Kili asked suddenly.

"Unfortunately not. I'm still working on that one," I said honestly.

I had always wanted a dog. "And a song?" Kili asked.

"You're quite determined, aren't you?" I growled.

"I am," Kili said brightly.

"Okay. Okay. Let me think for a moment," I said softly.

So I dug through the far corners of my mind to see if I could figure out something to sing for him. I honestly wasn't sure what I could sing. I knew plenty of songs that I liked, but none of them would be appropriate enough to sing to him. I would have to go with something old-fashioned. The last time that I had sung for him it had been something from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Maybe I could take something else from a movie. I did know one that I always liked. So I opened my mouth and sang.

"Deep in the meadow, under the willow  
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow  
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes  
And when again they open, the sun will rise.

"Here it's safe, here it's warm  
Here the daisies guard you from every harm  
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true  
Here is the place where I love you.

"Deep in the meadow, hidden far away  
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray  
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay  
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away.

"Here it's safe, here it's warm  
Here the daisies guard you from every harm  
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true  
Here is the place where I love you."

As my voice slowly dropped off, we dove into a long silence. The song was from The Hunger Games; Katniss had sung it to Rue as the younger girl had died in her arms. I blushed softly as the silence remained unbroken. I realized suddenly that it might have been a little too... romantic? In this setting, at least. Two people in the woods, alone, who might have had a crush on each other. It might have not come out the way that it was intended. To sooth someone in their dying moment.

"That's absolutely beautiful," Kili finally said.

So he hadn't thought that it was too weird to sing to him. That was good news. "Thank you. I'm glad that you like it," I whispered.

"Is it a lullaby?" Kili asked.

My head snapped over to him. Maybe he was smarter than I gave him credit for. "I'm surprised that you picked up on that. Most people automatically think that it's a love song. It's not. It's more designed to comfort someone at any given moment. Whenever they need it," I said, my own truth about the song.

"Have you ever sang it to someone?" Kili asked.

If I was being completely honest, I had actually sung the song once. At least, to someone else. I had sang it in my shower plenty of times. Right after the book came out in 2007, I was one of the first people to read it, long before it had ever become a movie. I had sung it to Harley right after I had turned fourteen and Harley was eight. I had done it in a different manner than Katniss had in the movie, mostly because I didn't know the tune yet. It had been to get Harley to go to sleep on a long road trip.

"I sang it to my sister when we were kids. Mostly to get her to go to sleep," I said.

"Did you ever sing it to Robbie?" Kili asked carefully.

A searing pain went through my chest. I would have if I could have. "No. He died before I had ever heard the song. I would have sang it to him, though. I think that he would have liked it," I said, my voice cracking.

"I promise you that he would have loved it," Kili said sweetly.

He reached over and grabbed my hands. "Thank you. He really would have liked you, Kili."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Smiling at him, I ran my hands through the bottom of the strands of his hair. "Because I like you. And he always seemed to like the things that I liked," I said.

Kili grinned. "Ah, you like me, do you?"

"Oh, shut up. Don't make me regret saying that," I groaned.

"Well I like you, too, Leah. Very much so," Kili said.

"That might just be the sweetest thing that you've ever said to me," I teased.

The two of us laughed at each other again. It was rather nice getting a chance to really talk to each other with no one else listening in. I smiled as I curled up against his side and clasped his hands tightly in mine. A moment later I felt Kili move one of his hands to rest against my hip where the tattoo for Robbie was. The two of us looked up at each other and, for just a moment, I debated on kissing him. I could see the look in his eyes. Was he thinking the same thing?

Neither one of us moved or did anything for a good few seconds. We just stared at each other and didn't dare move. I knew what would have happened in the old world. No matter who the guy had been, the exact same thing would have happened. The two of us would have leaned in for a kiss and one thing would have led to another and we would have ended up with a little midnight rendezvous in the woods, where we would have gotten to know each other just a little bit better.

But this wasn't like the old world. None of those things were ever going to happen in this version of the world. All of that meant that Kili was much more respectful than anyone that I had ever met and dealt with before. So he released my side and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. I merely blushed softly and dropped my gaze towards the ground, trying to get rid of the burning desire to kiss him that was still coursing through me. But I would have just made things really weird between us.

"Will you teach me to sword fight now?" I asked, breaking the silence and tense air.

"What?" Kili asked, glancing over to me. He looked very confused. "Oh - Yes. Yes, of course. Come on."

He took my hand and gently pulled me up from the rock that we were sitting on. "You sure that you want me fighting against you?" I teased, trying to make things look less awkward.

"Oh Miss Leah, I would love to fight against you," Kili teased.

"Don't call me that," I snapped.

Kili grinned. "Stand and face me."

The two of us stood together as Kili backed a few steps away from me. We merely watched each other for a few seconds before Kili ordered me to take my stance across from him. It took a few minutes for Kili to rearrange my stance. He had even mentioned that I was much more of a natural archer. My grip on the sword wasn't nearly tight enough and my stance wasn't loose enough. Kili had quite the time trying to get me to relax slightly.

Once I had finally gotten my stance and hold good enough to actually learn to fight with, Kili moved forward and had me start learning a few ways to block and parry with the sword. It was very obvious to us both that I wasn't very good with the sword. I was quite a bit better with the bow and arrow than I was with the sword. But at least I was learning. And it did help that it was easier to fight with Kili than it was with Dwalin, who would always scare me.

Eventually I dropped my sword to the ground with a little bit of a groan. "I'm hopeless with this," I whined.

"Why don't we try a real fight rather than just practicing stances and parries?" Kili offered.

At least we would see how good I would do in a real life fight. But there was still one issue. "If I can't even get the back-and-forth of stances and parries, how am I ever going to be able to learn how to fight for real?" I asked.

"The same way that you learned to wrestle. Real practice," Kili said.

"Are you going to laugh at me?" I asked.

"There's a good chance that I will," Kili said.

"You're such a jerk!" I gasped, shoving him.

Kili laughed and took my hand. "Come on. Get into fighting stance."

He was such a brat about things. Couldn't he have just told me that I was doing well with the sword? I would have liked that rather than him tell me that I was useless. Which I really knew that I was. But I had to try. So I took a few steps back from Kili and raised the sword, placing my two hands over the hilt. Kili swung his sword in a full circle over his own hands and I groaned. There was no way that I would ever beat him. He was too good.

As Kili came running after me, I knew that I couldn't win the fight on just sword fighting alone. So I swung around on my knees, underneath his first blow. On my hands and knees, I fell back as Kili slashed out at me again. He slashed towards my head once and I ducked, but as he brought the hilt up and around again, he jammed it down into my stomach, throwing me backwards. At least the next time that he threw the sword down to me, I caught it over my stomach.

Shoving both his sword and himself away from me, I backed off a few steps. Kili ran after me again, jumping up into the air slightly and bringing the sword down over me. I was just barely able to swing out of the way of his sword as I rolled over myself. As he slashed again, I caught his sword on the cross section, shoved him backwards, and jumped up over him. I caught my sword over Kili's but he quickly shoved mine upwards and then aimed over my head again.

It was very hard to just barely manage to fend off his next attack. I saw Kili swing the sword around again as I dashed over to the other side of the clearing. Kili swung out again at me as I threw myself over his sword in a sideways roll, landing on my feet again as Kili once more jumped after me. That time I was able to meet his slash in midair, keeping it from blowing me backwards. As we both landed, facing each other again, I threw my sword over so that I was holding it underhanded by the hilt.

As Kili swung his sword through what would have been my torso, I went into a one-armed cartwheel underneath it. And as he brought the sword back for another swing underneath my knees, I rounded off into a flip over the blade. Kili gave a stunned glance as I landed on my feet and turned back to face him. I ran back after him and slashed out the sword at Kili's knee. He was quick enough to defend the parry with a block from his own sword.

We both stumbled backwards, but were quick to move again. I thrust out my sword at Kili, who blocked it just inches away from his face. He then threw me back where I ran back after him. Jumping up into the air, I tried to thrust my sword down towards Kili, but he blocked it again, hitting me to the side. As I swung out at Kili again, he caught my sword underneath the thrust, shoved it back upwards, and knocked me backwards.

Deciding that I might as well go for it, I tried to spin into Kili and thrust the sword over to throat, but he spun before I could and caught my arm. With his spare hand, he grabbed the sword from me and threw it to the ground. I tried to grab his arm and twist it back to throw him over me, as I had done many times before. It was the only way that I could win the fight. But as I grabbed him and Kili tried to step back away from me, we ended up tripping each other up and we went sprawling into the grass.

Since we were standing on a slight hill, the two of us rolled head over ass over each other and straight down the hill. We must have ended up at least ten yards away from where we had initially landed together, which then followed by another few rolls through the grass, the two of us rolling over each other. Finally we stopped spinning and merely landed in a pile together, grass in our hair and clothes, looking a complete mess.

Even after we had stopped falling and had merely settled back in the grass, the two of us started laughing madly. I was shocked that none of the company came to tell us to be quiet. Our legs were knotted together and Kili was laying on top of me. I blushed softly as Kili brushed a few stray hairs back off of my forehead. His hands very gently trailed over the side of my face as I stared straight into his dark brown eyes, blushing madly now. Maybe we were finally going to really kiss.

But this was still a movie and that meant that, like in every good movie, there were going to have to be a few near-miss kisses with the two main characters before the actual kiss could happen. So Kili cleared his throat, his own face bright red, as he awkwardly rolled off of me. Mortified at what had just happened, I rubbed a hand over my face, wishing that I had been bold enough to just kiss him and get it over with. At least he would have known how I felt. And I was sure that he felt the same way.

"I think that we were doing well right up until the fall," I whispered, knowing that Kili felt a little too awkward to speak.

"I'm not sure, Leah. I think that we were doing well after it too," Kili said playfully, gazing right into my eyes.

As in the kiss that we had almost shared? "After?" I asked softly.

"After," Kili confirmed.

Yes, he was definitely referring to the near-kiss. I blushed madly and turned away. Why the hell hadn't he just kissed me? "Sh - Should we go back to the others?" I stuttered dumbly.

"Ah, yes," Kili said, clearing his throat. "I suppose that we should."

"Or we could stay for a little while longer?" I offered softly.

Kili glanced over at me and smiled. "Perhaps a few minutes wouldn't hurt."

It really would have been nice to be in the old world where I could have asked him if he just wanted to strip down and get it over with. Of course, this was much more romantic. So we both smiled and sat together in the grass and enjoyed each other's company. I eventually sat pressed up against Kili's side with our hands tangled together. My legs were thrown over his and his hands were resting on my thighs. It was enough to make me laugh. It was moments like these that made my heart flutter.

These kids of moments where we were gentlemanly, but he seemed like he might have really liked me. I honestly had faith that he might have really liked me. The two of us eventually returned to the camp where we laid back on the ground in our own spots. Everyone was quickly starting to fall asleep as I placed myself on Kili's shoulder. I didn't even pretend to try and sleep on my own blanket anymore. I simply used his shoulder as a pillow these days.

It was enough to really make me happy. I really did enjoy our nights of just sitting and laying together. Even when we said nothing. So I merely laid there, smiling, as Kili gently rested a hand on my hip, the same place where my tattoo for Robbie was. With no one in the company speaking, I simply enjoyed the quiet as the rest of the dwarves started to fall asleep. But the two of us remained awake well into the night. I glanced up at Kili after laying together for about an hour.

"Will you ever tell me what it was that you said earlier?" I whispered.

"One day," Kili confirmed. How long was one day supposed to be? "Promise me something?"

"Of course."

"Please don't repeat the word that I was teaching you."

"That dangerous, huh?" I teased.

"In a way."

"Now that just makes me even more curious."

Kili grinned at me. "Go to bed."

But I really did want to know what it meant. Why wouldn't he tell me? We both laughed again as the two of us laid down under our blankets, holding each other close. Just the way that I had never done with a guy before. Not even Brian. I normally laid facing away from boyfriends. I never wanted to see them. But Kili was different and he wasn't even a boyfriend. He was just a friend. Although every day it seemed to be getting more... flirtatious?

In the back of my mind I knew that the other dwarves would soon start talking about the way that we slept together, much closer than anyone else did, but I was trying to ignore it. They were like little girls. They liked gossiping about everyone, particularly Kili and I. It wasn't my fault that the rest of them couldn't get a little interested in someone of the opposite gender. Before I drifted off, I could feel Kili's lips gently brush against my forehead comfortingly.

By the next day I had realized that it turned out that the dwarves were talking about our relationship. They were such little girls when it came to gossiping about us. Apparently our sleeping arrangement was the talk of the company, something that Thorin and the older dwarves didn't like even the slightest. Bilbo had told me about it in the morning, warning me to be careful. It had been his warning that had caused me to think that we might have to be a little more careful with our arrangement.

In the coming days, I did still sleep on Kili's shoulder - as it had become a place of comfort for me - but I tried not to speak to Kili quite as much. At least, not while we were laying together. It put us too close to each other's faces. So I just tried to keep things casual. It really wasn't easy, considering my monstrous crush on him, but I did manage to do it. I could see that Kili was confused at my change of demeanor, but he didn't comment on it. He merely let me keep my slight distance.

One morning, a few days later, we forded a river at a wide shallow place full of the noise of stones and foam. The far bank was steep and slippery. When we got to the top of it, leading our ponies, we saw that the great mountains had marched down very near to us. Already we seemed only a day's easy journey from the feet of the nearest, which meant that Rivendell must have been near. It also meant that the terrain was about to get much more difficult to ride on.

Already the horses and ponies were having a hard time getting up and over the rocky pathways. Gandalf's white horse was having the easiest of times, but even she was having problems. Dark and drear the mountains looked as we approached them, though there were patches of sunlight on its brown sides, and behind its shoulders the tips of snow-peaks gleamed. It was something that the films could have never truly encompassed.

"Is that The Mountain?" Bilbo asked in a solemn voice, looking at it with round eyes.

Was it the Lonely Mountain? No. It couldn't have been. We were in the middle of one of the mountain ranges. Plus we didn't see the Lonely Mountain until after Azog and the rest of the Warg Riders attacked after we headed to Goblin Town. Right? That was what I thought, and that seemed to still be a ways off. But I couldn't blame Bilbo for thinking that. I was sure that neither one of us had ever seen a thing that looked so big before. Not even Mount Everest could compare.

"Of course not!" Balin said.

"So what is it?" I asked curiously.

"That is only the beginning of the Misty Mountains, and we have got to get through, or over, or under those somehow, before we can come into Wilderland beyond. And it is a deal of a way even from the other side of them to the Lonely Mountain in the East where Smaug lies on our treasure," Balin explained.

"Oh!" Bilbo gasped.

Just at that moment I felt more tired than I had ever remembered feeling before. Were we really that far away? I knew that the journey took more than a year, but still, it seemed like it should have been going a little faster. Damn Peter Jackson for making the films go so fast. Although for a while, I was thinking once again of my comfortable Lazy Boy chair before the fire in our home where I could have fresh-brewed coffee. I had a feeling that it also wouldn't be the last time I would think that.

"Long journey," I mumbled.

"Don't want to see us that much?" Kili teased, riding up to my side.

Turning towards him, I smiled. "Oh no, I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I don't see you all every day anymore," I said sadly. That thought actually broke my heart. I didn't want to think about going back home and not being with them anymore. "It'll be different."

Kili rode at my side for a few moments in silence. "You could always stay," Kili said suddenly.

"Stay?" I asked curiously.

"Afterwards. Once we get to Erebor."

"Ah." I cleared my throat and dared to ask, "And where, exactly, would I stay?"

You shouldn't have said that. You aren't in the real world anymore! The two of us stared at each other for a good few moments and said nothing. As much as I really did miss my family, there was some relief that I felt at the thought of staying in Middle Earth and being with the dwarves forever. But something told me that Kili didn't want me to stay because he would miss me as a friend. He might have wanted me to stay because... well, I wasn't really sure exactly why.

I didn't have much time to ponder it, because now Gandalf led the way and he was speaking. "We must not miss the road, or we shall be done for. We need food, for one thing, and rest in reasonable safety - also it is very necessary to tackle the Misty Mountains by the proper path, or else you will get lost in them, and have to come back and start at the beginning again, if you ever get back at all."

"Where is it that you're making for, Gandalf?" Balin asked curiously.

"You are come to the very edge of the Wild, as some of you may know. Hidden somewhere ahead of us is the fair valley of Rivendell where Elrond lives in the Last Homely House. I sent a message by my friends, and we are expected," Gandalf explained.

The look on Thorin's face was nothing short of venomous. He would fight toe and nail to keep us from ever arriving at Rivendell. Too bad that we weren't going to make that work. We would literally fall right into Rivendell. And, at this point, I couldn't wait to get there. I really missed taking baths. Plus the idea of being in Rivendell sounded nice and comforting, but unfortunately we hadn't gotten there yet, and it wasn't as easy as it sounded to find the Last Homely House west of the Mountains.

The elves had definitely done a wonderful job hiding Rivendell from the rest of Middle Earth. There seemed to be no trees and no valleys and no hills to break the ground in front of us, only one vast slope going slowly up and up to meet the feet of the nearest mountain, a wide land the color of heather and crumbling rock, with patches and slashes of grass-green and moss-green showing where water might be. It wasn't going to be easy.

"How exactly is Thorin going to take being in Rivendell?" I asked Fili, riding up to his side.

"He'll try and avoid it at all costs," Fili answered.

"He really hates them that much?"

"However much you can imagine that he hates them, it's about ten times more than that."

Well that was quite a bit of hatred. "But they could really help." Fili shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "Do you have something against them, too?" I asked curiously.

"In my own way. But I wasn't there the day that Smaug attacked. I could only make my own inferences."

"Perhaps you should pass judgement until you meet them. After all, Thorin doesn't seem to like mortal men too much and I get the feeling that you at least kind of like me," I teased him.

"Yes, I suppose that you aren't completely terrible."

"Oh, hah, you're so funny," I snapped.

Fili laughed as he patted me on the leg. "We all like you, Leah. Some of us more than others."

My face turned a light red as I looked away for a few seconds. Awkward. "Yeah," I coughed briefly, "I've gotten the idea that Thorin and Dwalin don't particularly like me."

"That's not quite what I meant," Fili said.

"What did you -?"

"We make camp here for the night," Thorin interrupted.

Was he joking? The one time that I would have liked hearing Fili tell me something. "Would you mind rolling this out for me? I'm going to do a quick lap of the campsite," Fili said, handing me his roll.

"Sure," I said.

Trying not to argue with what Fili had asked of me, I went over to the far corner of the campsite and started rolling out his things along with my own, the entire time still wondering what his words were supposed to mean. But I couldn't figure it out for the life of me, at least, I didn't want to know what he meant. So I settled with just doing what he wanted. Most of us spent the night chatting and laughing with each other. Since I wasn't wrapped up in Kili, I got to know everyone else.

It was pretty nice, feeling like I was finally getting a little bit more settled into the company. Maybe the others were finally growing to like me. It was a peaceful thought that I got to hang onto while I drifted off to sleep on Kili's shoulder. Morning passed and afternoon came; but in all the silent waste there was no sign of any dwelling. We were all growing anxious, for we saw now that the house might have been hidden almost anywhere between us and the mountains.

A damned bath. All I wanted was a damned bath. But there was no sign of Rivendell. We came on unexpected valleys, narrow with steep sides that opened suddenly at our feet and we looked down surprised to see trees below us and running water at the bottom. There were gullies that we could almost leap over, but very deep with waterfalls in them. Still, there was nothing that looked like it could be Rivendell. So we simply kept on riding.

There were also dark ravines that one could neither jump over nor climb into. I might have been a strong enough swimmer to beat the current, but the ponies definitely couldn't and the dwarves and Bilbo weren't strong enough. Gandalf was the only other one that might have been able. There were bogs, some of them green pleasant places to look at, with flowers growing bright and tall; but a pony that walked there with a pack on its back would never have come out again.

Everything here was beautiful but dangerous. It was indeed a much wider land from the ford to the mountains than ever I could have guessed. Despite my aggravation with not being there yet, I was astonished. The only path was marked with white stones, some of which were small, and others were half covered with moss or heather. Altogether it was a very slow business following the track, even guided by Gandalf, who seemed to know his way about pretty well.

At least we had the wandering wizard with us. But even that didn't seem to help right now. Gandalf's head and beard wagged this way and that as he looked for the stones, and we followed his lead, but we seemed no nearer to the end of the search when the day began to fail. Tea-time had long gone by, and it seemed supper-time would soon do the same. There were moths fluttering about, and the light became very dim, for the moon had not risen.

We had to have been getting close. By now, well over a week had passed since we had escaped the trolls and we were now into the second month of the journey. Into the mid-afternoon, Misty began to stumble over roots and stones. Not only mine, but the rest of the ponies were also having a hard time walking. We came to the edge of a steep fall in the ground so suddenly that Gandalf's horse nearly slipped down the slope.

"This terrain is terrible," I said as Misty took a staggering jolt down the path.

"We are getting close to Rivendell," Gandalf told me.

He was riding next to me at the front of the group. "And do you plan on sharing that information with anyone?" I asked.

Thorin called for us to stop as I swung my legs off of Misty's back, dropping onto the ground next to Gandalf. "Do you think that Thorin would keep us on the path that we are if he knew how close we were to one of the largest elf dwellings?" Gandalf asked.

Gandalf had lately been very quiet about heading to Rivendell. "No," I started, "but maybe you should at least warn -"

"Something's coming!" Thorin's shout interrupted me.

"Gandalf," Bilbo gasped.

"What?" I shouted.

Was there supposed to have been an attack coming? "Stay together!" Gandalf said, heading off towards the others. "Hurry now. Arm yourselves."

"With us," Kili said, grabbing my arm and dragging me with him. "Come on!"

Everyone, including Bilbo, started drawing their weapons. Bilbo was staring down at the new blade that he had received, only having moved once I shouted at him to come with us. In the meantime, I was getting dragged after Kili and the others as we ran a little deeper into the woods. There was a loud cracking of branches and some heavy thumping as our attacker drew closer. We all stumbled backwards as a rabbit-drawn sled burst through the woods, nearly trampling Bifur.

Kili just barely saved me from becoming their runway. "Friend of yours?" I asked Gandalf sharply.

"Yours as well, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Thieves! Fire! Murder!" the guest shouted.

The man on the sled pulled up short of the company as everyone stared at him in horror and surprise. "Radagast!" Gandalf greeted happily, walking up to Radagast. Oh, so now we're meeting the famous Radagast. "Radagast the Brown. Ah. What on earth are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you, Gandalf. Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong," Radagast said importantly.

"Yes?" Gandalf prompted.

We were all still staring at Gandalf and Radagast like he had lost his mind. What the hell had just happened? And was I going insane, or was that bird poop that was running down the side of his face? I gagged slightly. Radagast opened his mouth to explain what was happening, but he quickly shut it. He did it once more, but quickly closed his mouth again, glancing down at the ground. He seemed to have forgotten what he was going to say.

"Oh, just give me a minute. Um, oh, I had a thought, and now I've lost it. It was, it was right there, on the tip of my tongue," Radagast said.

He was pointing at Gandalf, trying to get past the sense of urgency. Everyone was simply staring at him like he had lost his mind, which I had a feeling that he likely had. Gandalf was still staring at Radagast confusedly. I could see why he preferred animals to people; he couldn't figure out how to communicate with people. Radagast curled up his tongue and looked very surprised at whatever the result was.

"Is he... all there?" I asked Gandalf curiously.

"Oh, it's not a thought at all; it's a silly old..." Radagast said through his curled tongue. He stuck out his tongue and I watched as Gandalf reached over and pulled a stick insect out of his tongue. "Stick insect!"

Was he joking? Did he really have a stick insect in his mouth? How did someone not know that they had a stick insect in their mouth? How did it get in there in the first place? Gross. I could be as gross as the next person, but I would have never had a bug in my mouth. The dwarves, Bilbo, and I were all very flustered by the change in pace. Radagast and Gandalf looked totally normal. To my surprise, Gandalf grabbed my arm and pulled me off to the side with Radagast to speak privately.

"Miss Ambrose, come with us, please," Gandalf said, when I didn't move.

"Oh, uh, alright," I said dumbly.

The dwarves gave me a funny look as I walked off and I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn't sure why I was being brought with them. "Miss Ambrose? This is the woman that you spoke of?" Radagast asked Gandalf curiously.

"This is she," Gandalf said.

"Hello," I greeted, shaking Radagast's hand. "How do you do?"

"Wonderfully, Miss Ambrose. Immortal," Radagast said curiously. My eyebrow quirked. "Perhaps Middle Earth's newest protector, something that it needs desperately these days."

"Excuse me?" I asked.

Why did no one ever explain anything to me? "Middle Earth has gone through many periods of darkness before. Every time that it has, a new protector has been called to act on it. I do believe that you are the newest, Miss Ambrose. The Valar have indicated it," Radagast explained.

"P - Protector?" I stuttered. Radagast nodded. "No - No, that's not me. I can't protect anyone. I've been brought to protect - the company. No one else."

"We often do not believe how powerful we are, Miss Ambrose," Radagast said.

"Oh," I ran my hands through my hair, "Radagast, I appreciate the faith, but it's not me. I can't save the entire world."

"You think so little of yourself, Miss Ambrose," Radagast said.

"You think too highly of me," I sighed.

"We shall see," Gandalf put in. "What did you need, Radagast?"

As Gandalf and I stood off to the side, Radagast walked off on the other side of the clearing. "The Greenwood is sick, Gandalf. A darkness has fallen over it," Radagast said, turning back to look at us. "Nothing grows any more, at least nothing good. The air is foul with decay. But worst are the webs."

"Webs? What do you mean?" Gandalf asked.

"Spiders, Gandalf. Giant ones," Radagast said.

"Well aren't spiders kind of normal?" I asked dumbly.

"These are not normal spiders, Miss Ambrose. Some kind of spawn of Ungoliant, or I am not a Wizard. I followed their trail. They came from Dol Guldur," Radagast said importantly.

"Isn't that where Sauron is?" I asked suddenly.

That name sounded very familiar. Of course, everything here kind of sounded the same to me. "Yes, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf confirmed to me before turning back to Radagast. "But Dol Guldur? But the old fortress is abandoned."

"No, Gandalf, it is not," Radagast said.

"What happened, Radagast?" I asked.

Radagast's eyes glazed over slightly as he began speaking. "A dark power dwells there, such as I have never felt before. It is the shadow of an ancient horror. One that can summon the spirits of the dead. I saw him, Gandalf. From out of the darkness, a Necromancer has come."

His voice was deep and echoing and it was one of the scariest things that I had ever heard before. He seemed like such a goofy kind of person normally. But this was something much darker than I had been expecting. I glanced at Gandalf with a slightly pale face. Should we have done something about Radagast? It turned out that it didn't really matter. At that moment, Radagast woke up from his flashback and realized that he had gotten far too excited.

"I'm sorry," Radagast said.

"It's alright," I said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Sauron, it's Sauron, isn't it?"

Gandalf gave me a look. "Try a bit of Old Toby. It'll help settle your nerves."

But was it Sauron? Wasn't he the Necromancer that they talked about in Lord of the Rings all the time? I wasn't sure. I really wished that I would have paid a little more attention to the book and movies when I had watched and read them. Gandalf cleaned the mouthpiece of his pipe with his beard and then offered it to Radagast. Radagast took in a deep breath, let his eyes cross, and breathed in the smoke deeply.

"And out," Gandalf prompted.

Gandalf pulled the pipe from Radagast's mouth and I watched as he backed off slightly. Radagast still had his eyes crossed as he glanced up towards the sky before blowing the smoke out of his nose. It was a little strange to see the way that his eyes were even more crossed than they were a moment before. Once all of the smoke was out of Radagast's nose, he still managed to stay in a trance-like state for a few more seconds.

"Now," Gandalf started, drawing Radagast's attention, "a Necromancer. Are you sure?"

We had to be sure that there was actually something starting to grow in Dol Guldur. Could the war of the Ring actually be starting already? Had it actually started in The Hobbit? Radagast stepped back and pulled out something that looked vaguely like a sword wrapped in a beige cloth and handed it off to Gandalf. Gandalf slowly untied the package and stared down at it. It really bothered me the way that Gandalf even looked concerned. Wasn't it just a sword?

"What is that?" I asked softly.

"That is not from the world of the living," Radagast warned.

"So... a ghost?" I asked dumbly.

The moment that Gandalf opened his mouth - either to correct me or tell us what it was - a loud howl was heard out in the distance. Everyone turned around towards the howl to see what was happening. The rest of the company had suddenly been drawn to alert. My heart skipped a beat as I realized just how they had gotten to Rivendell in the film. They had been chased there by the Orcs and Wargs. And now I was going to have to run from them too.

"Was that a wolf?" Bilbo asked, dashing over to us. "Are there - are there wolves out there?"

There was another loud groan as Bofur looked up. "Wolves? No, that is not a wolf," Bofur said.

My hand was tightening around my knife that was tucked into the holster at my waist. How did it happen in the movie? Did they attack or did we just start running? I got my answer within seconds. To my horror, something that appeared almost like a white wolf appeared in between a crag behind Bofur, leaning over the rest of the company, growling dangerously. It had scars all over its back as it slowly began sinking down the rocks. Say something, Leah!

"Behind you!" I screamed, unable to think of anything smarter.

Thankfully the others didn't need me to say anything more. That was all they needed to react. They whirled around as the Warg jumped down into the midst of the company, knocking down Bifur and a few others, jumping straight over me. Thorin whipped out Orcrist and slashed through its skull. Another Warg appeared from the other side of the crag; Kili shot it with an arrow, bringing it down effortlessly. It wasn't dead yet. It struggled to get back up, only to be killed by Dwalin crushing its head.

"Stand back," Kili said, pushing me away from where the Warg Scouts had attacked. "Got your bow?"

"Yes," I said, pulling out an arrow and nocking it.

"Hang onto it," Kili said.

"Warg Scouts! Which means an Orc pack is not far behind," Thorin shouted.

"Orc pack?" Bilbo gasped.

"Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?" Gandalf asked angrily, storming up to Thorin.

"No one," Thorin said disbelievingly.

"Who did you tell?" Gandalf snarled.

"No one, I swear," Thorin repeated. "What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted," Gandalf said.

They were causing more problems than they were solving. We had to get a move on. "Enough!" I shouted, walking in between them. "They've clearly been tracking us for a while. Those Wargs, they have a good sense of smell, don't they?"

The others started nodding their consent. "We have to get out of here," Dwalin said.

"We can't!" Ori yelled, running into the fray with Bifur on his tail. At that same moment came a nasty snarl from a nearby Warg. "We have no ponies; they bolted."

"Can we outrun them?" I asked loudly.

"We aren't fast enough. They'll mow us down," Balin reasoned.

And what was it that had happened in the film? "What if someone distracts them?" I asked, turning towards Radagast, hoping that he would take my hint.

It turned out that he did. "I'll draw them off," Radagast said.

"These are Gundabad Wargs; they will outrun you," Gandalf said.

"These are Rhosgobel Rabbits; I'd like to see them try," Radagast said daringly.

Despite the tense moment, I smiled just the slightest bit. If he had faith, so would I. Before Radagast could mount his sled, I dashed over and caught his arm. "Wait a moment! Radagast, did you mean what you said? That I had the power to stop whatever is coming?" I asked softly.

Radagast leaned off of his sled slightly and pressed a hand against my cheek. "I believe that you were brought here for a reason, my dear. You are stronger than you believe," Radagast said.

Smiling softly, I nodded at him. That was all the confirmation that I needed. As Radagast set off towards the edge of the woods, Gandalf led the company down towards what would become an open plain. I remembered the scene well enough. Radagast would lead the Warg Riders in one direction while we tried to run the other. Dashing one by one, we sprinted behind some of the large boulders in the plain, still close to the tree line, waiting for Radagast's signal to make our move.

About five minutes passed before we were in position, waiting for our chance. The moment that the Wargs started howling, I knew that Radagast had made his move. Yazneg - as Gandalf had explained was the Orc leader of the Warg Riders - appeared to have been searching for us, on Azog's order, I could assume. They were broken from their search the moment that Radagast and the rabbits shot out of the far edge of the forest, causing the Wargs to immediately take chase.

"Come and get me! Ha ha!" Radagast laughed.

His voice and laughter was echoing loudly as he led the Orcs and Wargs through the plain. They were heading the opposite direction from the way that we needed to go, which was perfect. As the company hid behind a large boulder on the edge of the woods, we watched Radagast lead the Wargs off in the other direction. I glanced at Gandalf and nodded. If we wanted to get away from them, not was the right time to do it.

"We need to go. Radagast gave us a chance. Let's take it," I warned Gandalf.

"Right you are, Miss Ambrose. Come on!" Gandalf yelled.

Breathing heavily, the company set off across the rocky plain. We all dashed down a hill, sprinting as fast as we could go. As in shape as I was, running had never been my forte. We moved fast in the MMA, but very few of us were runners. Boxing was more of what I did to keep myself in shape. On the far side of the plain, heading in the opposite direction, Radagast was still leading off the Orcs. I could hear one of the Wargs let out a piercing howl.

On and on the chase went. The Orcs were on the other side of a large boulder that we were dashing around as I puffed out large breaths. I definitely needed to work on my running. It had always been Mike's way of punishing me for coming in hungover, since he knew that I hated it so much. As Radagast and the Orcs crossed over the path that we were heading down, Thorin came to a halt, the rest of us following. We were just lucky that they were too focused on Radagast to notice us.

"Stay together," Gandalf muttered, motioning us back the way that we had come.

"Move!" Thorin yelled.

We all sprinted back the other way at top speed. I tried to search for the rocks that hid the entrance to Rivendell, but they all looked the same. How was Gandalf going to manage to pick it out? I was in the middle of the pack, placed in between Kili and Fili as they kept urging me along. My heart was pounding in my chest as I heard the growling of one of the Wargs. They were close and getting even closer. As I glanced after them, I saw Radagast drive his sled beneath an overhanging projection of rock.

He managed to duck and avoid it, but the Orc on the Warg behind him had gotten knocked off. At least that was one down. The bad thing with having Radagast on the sled was that he had to go back and forth to keep the Wargs from catching up to him. That meant that they kept sprinting right in front of where we were running. After sprinting for nearly ten minutes, we rounded a rather large boulder. Thorin stopped behind a rock to ensure that we weren't seen by the passing Wargs.

To my horror, Ori started running out from behind cover. "Ori, no! Come back!" Thorin yelled, grabbing the collar of his tunic and yanking him back.

"Come on! Quick!" Gandalf hissed.

That was all that it took to force us to keep running. We had to get somewhere safe and far away from the Wargs. Our group dashed out from behind the rocks, one by one. Kili and Fili were some of the first ones out. I took a moment to gather my breath. How the hell was I going to manage to get all the way to Rivendell? I wasn't sure where it was and I was already exhausted. As the dwarves continued dashing out from behind the rocks, Thorin turned to Gandalf.

"Where are you leading us?" Thorin snarled.

"It doesn't matter. Keep going," I said breathlessly.

Thorin stared at me for a moment, but as I grabbed his arm, he dashed out from behind the rocks with me. Gandalf wouldn't have answered anyways. His hands were on my arms as he shoved me back towards the front of the company. Kili delayed his run long enough to reach back and grab my arms, dragging me with him. Come on, Leah, you're an MMA fighter. Get it together! As the Warg Scouts continued sprinting off of Radagast, one of them stopped on the top of a boulder and scented the air.

Not good. Definitely not good. I thought about saying something, but Kili's hand on my arm caused me to snap back into myself. The two of us followed the rest of the company down a few feet over rocks and grass. We passed over another narrow part of the plain and I stared out into the distance. As we ran, Radagast and the rest of the Warg Scouts crossed over our path. We all stopped dead in our tracks and then ran to take cover behind an outcropping of rock.

We hesitated there for a few moments, waiting for the Orc Scout and Warg to leave. Unfortunately I knew that they wouldn't. Kili had an arm over my stomach, probably feeling my heart hammering against my ribs, as the Warg appeared on top of the rock, scenting the air. It had also drawn a sword. I gave Thorin a look and he nodded, looking over to Kili with another meaningful nod. Kili reached back and drew an arrow, nocking it against the bow.

For just a moment Kili reached down to squeeze my hand; a moment of reassurance, just in case. Settling the arrow firmly on the bow, Kili dashed out from the outcropping of rock and raised the bow and arrow. Like he always had been able to, he found his target instantly and shot the arrow into the Wargs neck. It began roaring as it turned to try and jump onto us. Before it got the chance, Kili shot another arrow into the Orcs shoulder.

That was enough to throw the both of them off balance. The Warg and Orc went toppling off of the outcropping and fell right in front of the company, the Warg still howling at the top of its lungs. The Orc jumped up but Bombur, Dwalin, and Bifur were quick to kill it with their axes. I reached back and shot an arrow into the eye of the Warg, killing it for good. Well... at least I knew that I could kill something. If it was laying still and already half-dead...

Unfortunately the sound of the killings had traveled to the Orcs and Wargs on the far side of the plain, who had now stopped chasing Radagast. "The Dwarf-scum are over there! After them!" Yazneg yelled in the Black Speech.

The others turned to me, as Gandalf had told them that I could understand it. "Leah?" Kili asked breathlessly.

"They heard us. They know where we are," I said.

The Orcs and Wargs started howling and screaming as they stopped pursuing Radagast and turned instead to follow us. "Move. Run!" Gandalf warned us.

The howls grew increasingly louder as we sprinted off into the distance. We only had a few seconds before the Wargs would be right on top of us. I knew that they could easily outstrip us. Kili shoved me ahead of him as we ran with the rest of the company over the grassy plain, hopefully towards Rivendell. Like I had figured, it only took a few minutes for the Wargs to catch onto where we were. I started seeing them coming from all angles, readying themselves to surround us.

"There they are!" Gloin shouted, pointing towards some Wargs in the distance.

"This way! Quickly!" Gandalf yelled.

Our company turned and tucked tail in the other direction. It felt like we had been running back and forth for at least an hour. Maybe it was. I knew that it had been at least fifteen minutes, far longer than I had ever sprinted before. Yet we still hadn't made it anywhere. We ran over and down hills for what felt like an hour, never even daring to stop or hesitate. We only stopped when Yazneg and one of the other Orcs positioned themselves on a hill that we were heading for.

"There's more coming!" Kili shouted.

"Kili! Shoot them!" Thorin yelled back.

Kili positioned himself next to me. "Remember what we talked about?" he asked.

"Y - Yes," I stammered.

"Take the closest ones. Calm down. You can do this," Kili told me.

Of course I could do this. I was a halfway decent shot. I would be able to shoot one of the Orcs and Wargs down without a problem. As long as I was aiming for the closer ones. I tore the bow off of my back and nocked an arrow. My heart was thumping louder than the Wargs were growling. I could barely hear them over it. In the far corner of my eyes I could see that Gandalf went running off towards a large rock near us, but I was distracted by the Wargs closing in.

"We're surrounded!" Fili yelled.

"Fire!" Kili shouted at me.

Kili nocked an arrow and instantly fired into the throat of one of the Orc Riders, killing them. I tried to stand at his back, the two of us firing in opposite directions. After taking a moment to calm myself down, I started firing at each Orc and Warg that got too close. Only about half of my shots were actually hitting their mark, but I had managed to take down a few. One jumped onto Ori after a few seconds and I turned my arrow from one advancing on Bombur onto the new threat.

My arrow instantly found its mark. It was the first one that had hit its mark without me having to take a moment to think about it. Maybe there was a chance that I wasn't as bad at this as I had thought that I was. Ori turned back to me in surprise and nodded his thanks. I smiled at him and fired at another Warg that was running up behind him, instantly taking it down too, just barely saving Ori from getting his throat ripped out. He jumped up and sprinted off.

"Where is Gandalf?" Kili asked.

"He has abandoned us!" Dwalin yelled back.

No... That's right. He had gone to find Rivendell. He would be back in just a moment. We were almost done here! We just had to make it for a few more seconds. We all slowly started slinking towards one of the rocks that the Wargs were starting to surround us by. Yazneg and his Warg were some of the ones who were the closest to us. They were starting to approach, nearest Ori, who shot a rock at Yazneg out of his slingshot, to no effect. They kept advancing.

Thorin pulled out his sword and swung it. "Hold your ground!" Thorin shouted.

"There are too many!" I warned loudly.

Suddenly Gandalf popped up from a crack in the rock. "This way, you fools!" he yelled.

"Come on, move!" Thorin yelled, instantly causing everyone to turn and jump into the opening. Thorin stood at the entrance, making sure that everyone got in safely. "Quickly, all of you! Go, go, go!"

For whatever reason, I didn't break for the rock. I stood near Kili and continued to shoot at the Wargs that threatened the rest of the company's safety. As they began sprinting and throwing themselves into the opening, I shot at a Warg on the far side of the plain. Thorin turned back and slashed his sword right over the muzzle of one of the Wargs that approached, killing it. Kili and I both turned to shoot two more that were approaching.

"Nine, ten," Gandalf counted as the dwarves continued to jump into the cave.

"Kili! Leah! Run!" Thorin shouted.

"Go! Go now!" Kili yelled at me.

"Move!" I shouted at Thorin.

He needed to get away from the rock. There was a chance that Thorin was in danger up there. He was right in range of their arrows. I ran towards Thorin and the entrance to the cave, spotting one of the Orcs from behind him getting ready to aim one of their arrows straight towards him. Had that happened in the film? I guessed that it didn't matter. I couldn't let him get hit. My job here was to make sure that he would be safe. 

Thorin might not have liked me very much, but I didn't care. He was not going to die this early in the journey. So I very foolishly dove after Thorin, knowing that there wasn't enough time for me to warn him and have him realize what he was trying to avoid. I threw my loaded bow into the cave and jumped straight past Kili, who had been waiting for me to jump into the cave. As I launched myself past him, I grabbed onto his arm and shoved him into the cave.

Landing in a tuck and roll, I straightened out for a moment to twirl on one foot, swiping out Thorin's knees. It instantly made him clumsily drop to the ground and go rolling into the cave. At that exact moment, as Thorin vanished from over me, the Orc released its arrow. I managed to throw myself into the cave just in time. The arrow just barely nicked the side of my arm as I painfully fell head over heels into the hole with the others.

"Leah!" Kili shouted, falling at my side as I came to a rest.

"Are you alright?" Thorin asked breathlessly.

He looked a little stunned from his own fall. "Just a scratch. I'm fine," I said, covering my bleeding arm with my hand.

Honestly I was lucky that it was just a nick and hadn't lodged in my arm instead. "That was a foolish thing that you did. You could have been killed," Thorin snapped.

"Yeah, well I was trying to save your life. And I did. You're welcome," I snapped back.

"Come on," Kili said, trying to diffuse the attention.

He reached down and gave me his hand, trying to help me get back to my feet. To my horror, I then heard the Orcs and Wargs prowling around above the cave. Just as Yazneg and his Wargs reached the crack, an elvish horn sounded. We watched from the crack as shadows passed over us and the thumps of arrows and spears came from above. The same Orc that had shot me in my arm eventually came rolling into the cave, shot by an elvish arrow. Thorin plucked out the arrow and examined the make.

"Elves," Thorin spat.

"Do you make a habit out of not thanking people who save you?" I sneered.

Thorin shot me a nasty look as he tossed the arrow to the ground. Kili grabbed my arm and pulled me away from his uncle. "Never do that again," he said breathlessly.

"Sorry, habit," I mumbled dumbly.

I always had had a savior complex. "Here. Wrap that up," Fili said, handing me a cloth.

"Thanks." I took it and let Kili start helping me wrap it up. "Ouch," I groaned in pain as Kili put a hand around my waist.

"Leah?" Kili asked in concern.

"I got a little banged up in the fall. I'm fine, Kili," I said, shrugging off his concern. "We should leave though. I doubt that staying here is the wisest idea."

We would be fine. We were down in the cave and soon enough we were going to be on our way to Rivendell. I was sure that we would be there within the hour. I was going to get a real bedroom and somewhere for me to take a bath! Suddenly my bleeding arm was no big deal. Kili wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me with him. On the other end of the company, as most of them were still looking at the Orc, Dwalin was wandering down the pathway in the cave.

"I cannot see where the pathway leads. Do we follow it or no?" Dwalin yelled back to us.

"Give me a hand, will you?" I asked Kili.

"Follow it, of course!" Bofur shouted back.

Maybe the run had taken more out of me than I had been expecting. "Are you alright?" Kili asked worriedly, brushing the hair back off of my forehead. "You're looking a little pale."

"Fine, fine. Just a little startled is all," I said.

"I think that would be wise," Gandalf said lowly, and we all started off down the passage.


	9. Chapter Nine

There was something strange happening to me as we followed the path. It seemed like I was gradually getting weaker and weaker. I wasn't sure why, though. I had only gotten one arm barely scratched by an arrow. How was I in so much pain already? Thankfully Kili was practically glued to my hip as we walked through the cave. The only problem was that it was a very narrow crack between the two tall cliffs, which meant that it was hard to get through at some parts. In the moments that we had to walk one-by-one, Kili and Fili kept their hands on me as I walked between them.

Fili kept my hands in his. He was clearly making sure that I wasn't going to flop forwards. Kili's hands were on my hips, keeping me steady as I tried to walk. My vision was slightly blurred and I knew that I was staggering around. To my pleasure, we made it through the pathway within a few minutes. Suddenly the pathway opened up into what appeared to be a large valley. As everyone spread out, I placed myself between Fili and Kili, staring at the beautiful valley of Rivendell below us. The massive waterfalls, old stone castle, and rocky mountains were incredible. I'd never seen something so lovely.

As the entire company stared at Rivendell breathlessly, I laid a hand on Kili's chest - partially because I was stunned at the sight and also because I thought that I might fall. His hand tightened over my waist. "The Valley of Imraldis," Gandalf called softly. "In the Common Tongue, it's known by another name."

"Rivendell," Bilbo breathed.

It was almost impossible not to tell him that one day he would end up here. The place he had always wanted to be. "Here lies the last Homely House east of the sea," Gandalf said.

"Oh, it's beautiful," I said happily.

Fresh running water! A real bath. A real bed! No more snoring dwarves! Oh, yes, I was thrilled to be in Rivendell. "There's a certain quality about it," Fili said from my side.

"Oh, just admit it. It's lovely," I huffed.

Bilbo stared at Rivendell in awe. As everyone else began moving towards the edge of the rocks, Thorin turned back and advanced on Gandalf. "This was your plan all along, to seek refuge with our enemy," he sneered.

"You have no enemies here, Thorin Oakenshield. The only ill will to be found in this valley is that which you bring yourself," Gandalf said.

"You think the Elves will give our quest their blessing? They will try to stop us," Thorin hissed lowly.

For good reason, too. It was quickly becoming almost impossible to keep my mouth shut about the future and all that I knew. "Of course, they will," Gandalf said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But we have questions that need to be answered." Thorin let out a breath and looked down towards the ground. "If we are to be successful, this will need to be handled with tact and respect and no small degree of charm. Which is why you will leave the talking to me."

The others didn't look thrilled with Gandalf's words. I snorted softly as we walked off. Kili kept an arm wrapped around me as we began making our way down the pathway. My head was still spinning. "How long will it take us to get down there?" I asked Gandalf breathlessly.

How was I short of breath? Besides the long run - which I had recovered from - I hadn't done enough to make me exhausted. "No longer than an hour," Gandalf said, looking back at me. His eyes widened. "Miss Ambrose? Are you alright?"

The entire company turned back to look at me. "Tired, I guess," I mumbled stupidly.

There was definitely something wrong with me, but this was the wrong time to discuss it. I supposed that someone could help me out when we got down into Rivendell. If there was actually something wrong with me. I must not have looked good, because Kili kept giving me a concerned look. He brushed back sweat off of my forehead, which made no sense. It wasn't that hot out. It was rather cool, actually. What the hell was wrong with me? And why was I gradually feeling worse and worse? Why did Kili have to drag me along?

He seemed about ready to pick me up and carry me, but I refused to prove Thorin right and be the weak damsel-in-distress. I could manage myself. I just needed the slightest bit of a hand right now. The valley far below was gradually getting closer and closer. Like Gandalf said, the trip down took almost an hour, at which point I was feeling worse and worse. I could hear the voice of hurrying water in a rocky bed at the bottom of the valley; the scent of trees was in the air and there was a light on the valley-side across the water.

The elves were there. I was sure that I would never forget the way that we slithered and slipped in the dusk down the steep and winding path into the secret valley of Rivendell. The air grew warmer as we got lower, and the smell of the pine-trees made me drowsy. It wasn't good, because I was already getting drowsy. Every now and again I nodded and nearly fell off. Each time Kili tightened his grip around me and nudged me gently to keep me awake and walking. He looked incredibly concerned for me. But my spirit rose as we went down and down.

Medicine and rest were getting closer. As we walked the trees changed to beech and oak, and there was a comfortable feeling in the twilight. The last green had almost faded out of the grass when we came at length to an open glade not far above the banks of the stream. It was lovely and smelled like what I imagined Rivendell would smell like. Clean. Gripping onto Kili, I grinned and looked up at the stars. His gaze followed me, grinning at the wonder in my eyes. The stars were burning bright and blue. Just then there came a burst of song like laughter in the trees:

"O! What are you doing,  
And where are you going?  
Your ponies need shoeing!  
The river is flowing!  
O! tra-la-la-lally  
here down in the valley!

"O! What are you seeking,  
And where are you making?  
The faggots are reeking,  
The bannocks are baking!  
O! tril-lil-lil-lolly  
the valley is jolly,  
ha! ha!

"O! Where are you going  
With beards all a-wagging?  
No knowing, no knowing  
What brings Mister Baggins  
And Balin and Dwalin  
down into the valley  
in June  
ha! ha!

"O! Will you be staying,  
Or will you be flying?  
Your ponies are straying!  
The daylight is dying!  
To fly would be folly,  
To stay would be jolly  
And listen and hark  
Till the end of the dark  
to our tune  
ha! ha!"

Weren't the elves supposed to be super uptight? I thought that it was the dwarves that liked to sing and dance? Perhaps I remembered The Hobbit even less than I thought that I did. To my pleasure the elves laughed and sang in the trees; and pretty fair nonsense I realized. It was lovely. It was nice to see that they were a little happier and more carefree than they were in the movies. I figured that they wouldn't care what they thought of us; they would probably merely laugh all the more if we told them so. They were apparently careless elves. Perhaps Thranduil's elves were different.

Soon I caught glimpses of the elves as the darkness deepened. Risking a glance over at Bilbo, I could see that he already loved the elves. As we walked, he whispered to me that he had seldom met them; but apparently, he was a little frightened of them too. At the moment, so was I. Judging by the looks on their faces, the dwarves wouldn't get on well with them. Apparently even decent enough dwarves like the company thought them foolish (which was a very foolish thing to think), or got annoyed with them. It seemed that the elves teased and laughed at them; most of all at their beards.

"They're awfully chipper," I whispered to Kili.

They really were a lot friendlier and gigglier than I had been expecting. But it was kind of cute. Kili glanced over at me and his eyes widened. "Leah? Are you sure that you're alright?" Kili asked gently.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm just... oddly tired," I said.

"You're looking pale," Kili said, placing the back of his hand against my forehead.

"Maybe I'm just tired. I'm not... I don't know," I breathed.

One of Kili's hands went around to grip at my waist as the other gently laid against my stomach. Clearly, he was trying to keep me awake. "We'll get you something to eat and find you somewhere to rest," Kili promised.

"A bed. God, I hope they have actual beds," I groaned.

Kili grinned, clearly trying to make me feel better. "Am I not a good enough pillow?" Kili teased.

I laughed, immediately launching into a coughing fit. Kili pressed a hand underneath my chin to try and steady me. Once I had my breath back, I grinned tiredly at Kili. "Oh, you make a wonderful pillow. In fact, there's never been a better one," I teased.

"What high praise," Kili joked.

At least he was trying to keep me moderately happy and awake while we walked. But I could still see his fear for me in the back of his eyes. At least he wasn't explicitly telling me that he was concerned with me. I didn't want him to treat me differently until we knew that I wasn't okay. I smiled at Kili as we walked over a narrow grey stone bridge, the only thing separating us from a steep waterfall, and entered the city of Rivendell. We walked past two huge statues of elf soldiers as I glanced up towards the magnificent staircase in front of us, where two real elves stood guard.

Everyone began spreading out around the entryway as Bilbo stared in awe at the beauty of the place. I knew how he felt. Right now, I never wanted to leave Rivendell. The rest of the dwarves looked uneasy, Thorin and Dwalin most of all. I could see them looking at each other for reassurance. Probably mentally planning an attack against the elves. I glanced up in surprise when a dark-haired elf walked down the stairs to greet us. Kili's arm tightened around me as the elf came closer. All of the dwarves looked at him with suspicion.

"Mithrandir," the dark-haired dwarf called as he descended the staircase.

Gandalf turned back and grinned. "Ah, Lindir!"

Lindir... Did I know who Lindir was? I barely recalled him being in one of the Lord of the Rings books. Was it the first one? I didn't know. I vaguely remembered from the film that he seemed to be Lord Elrond's right-hand man. Lindir placed a hand over his chest before motioning out towards Gandalf in what appeared to be a welcoming greeting. Lindir looked perfectly nice to me. The dwarves instantly began murmuring among themselves in distrust. I rolled my eyes. Of course... All because he was an elf.

Thorin leaned into Dwalin and whispered, "Stay sharp."

I turned towards the two of them in aggravation. "They're here to help us. They're not going to do anything to you," I snapped.

They both glared at me as Lindir finally fell into step right in front of Gandalf. "Lastannem i athrannedh i Vruinen," Lindir said. It was one of the elvish languages, but I recognized his words. He had mentioned that he had heard that we had crossed into the Valley.

"I must speak with Lord Elrond," Gandalf said urgently.

"My Lord Elrond is not here," Lindir replied.

"Not here? Where is he?" Gandalf asked suspiciously.

In the back of my mind I realized that it was probably going to be pretty cool to meet Lord Elrond. I had always liked Hugo Weaving. He played such cool characters! Lindir looked like he was about to respond when, suddenly, the elvish horns from earlier echoed throughout the valley again. Right now, they were just giving me a throbbing headache. Even worse, the company instantly began reacting to what they believed was a battle cry. The company - myself included - turned around to see a group of armed horsemen approaching along the bridge at a rapid rate.

"Ifridî bekâr!" Thorin yelled. In the back of my mind, I realized that it must have meant something about weapons, considering the fact that everyone instantly raised their weapons. "Hold ranks!"

"Get back!" Kili yelled to me.

Just as they were doing with Bilbo, I was shoved towards the middle of the pack. I stumbled in and practically collapsed. "Are you nuts?" I hissed at the rest of the company. They were such morons. "They're just coming back home. They're the ones who killed the Orcs."

Fili turned back for a moment to stare at me. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"The elvish arrows, you morons," I snapped.

They were such complete idiots. The elves were trying to help us. They were just returning back home right now. The dwarves bunched up together into a tight circle with their weapons pointed outward. I noticed that Bilbo and I were the only two without a direct line towards the outside of the pack. In front of me were Fili and Kili, clearly not daring to leave me in danger of getting hit. The mounted elves arrived quickly and rode in circles around the dwarves, who were all panicking. Eventually, they stopped, and one elf, Elrond, separated himself from the others.

He turned towards Gandalf with a grin. "Gandalf," he greeted.

Gandalf instantly bowed gracefully. "Lord Elrond." Gandalf swept his arms out to the side while the rest of the company looked on mistrustfully. "Mellonnen! Mo evínedh?" Gandalf said.

Vaguely I remembered him saying something about how they were friends and asking where the other had been. "Farannem ‘lamhoth i udul o charad. Dagannem rim na Iant Vedui," Lord Elrond replied.

Now that one I did remember. The language was familiar enough, having seen the movie multiple times. But there was something even more familiar about it. It almost sounded like something that I could recognize. I remembered Lord Elrond telling Gandalf that they had been hunting the pack of Orcs that had come up from the South and that his company had slayed a number of them near the Hidden Pass - the ones that we had drawn out there. Lord Elrond dismounted from his horse and quickly came to Gandalf's side, giving him a brotherly hug.

"Strange for Orcs to come so close to our borders. Something, or someone, has drawn them near," Lord Elrond said.

Whoops. I wanted to say something - perhaps apologize for drawing the Orcs in - but I knew that it wasn't my job to speak right now. Like Gandalf had said, speaking was his job right now. He had to charm the elves and make sure that they didn't know about our mission. Which didn't really matter. They would find out soon enough. Lord Elrond held up the Orc sword that he must have taken from one of the dead Orcs before handing it off to Lindir. Gandalf gave Lord Elrond a slightly guilty smile.

"Ah, that may have been us," Gandalf said.

Not may have been us, Gandalf, it was definitely us. The Orcs were following us and we had accidentally drawn them into Rivendell - which wasn't very helpful of us. I noticed that Lord Elrond looked just the slightest bit exasperated. Probably sick of having to clean up the messes of everyone else in Middle Earth. To my surprise, Thorin stepped past Dwalin and Nori to get to Lord Elrond. Even more shocking, Gandalf motioned for me to step forward. I pulled away from Kili with much difficulty, but I was determined not to look weak in front of the regal elves.

Lord Elrond looked us both over with something akin to recognition in his eyes. "Miss Ambrose," Lord Elrond greeted, smiling at me. My eyebrows shot up. He knew me just by sight? "A pleasure to finally meet you."

"Huh?" I called dumbly.

"Miss Ambrose," Gandalf chided sharply.

"Right, sorry, um... I wasn't expecting you to know who I am," I said stupidly. Sound a little more idiotic, why don't you, Leah? "But it's lovely to meet you, Lord Elrond."

"And you as well, Miss Ambrose," Lord Elrond said, unbothered by my stupid muttering.

As he moved forward, I reached out a hand and smiled bashfully when he kissed the back of it. "Just Leah, please," I said as Lord Elrond stepped away.

"Of course. We've been looking forward to having you arrive here," Lord Elrond replied.

Had they really been expecting me? It didn't make sense. Gandalf and Lord Elrond must have known that I had been on my way here. Or, they had known that someone was planning on bringing me here. How had someone known that I would be on my way here? Was this really some kind of huge plan? I turned back to look at the company - all of whom were staring back at me. Clearly, they understood why Lord Elrond knew about my ultimate arrival about as much as I did.

"I've been looking forward to it as well," I said truthfully.

And I really had been looking forward to getting to Rivendell. It was lovely here. And I was so excited for a real bath and bed. Lord Elrond stepped past me and moved in front of Thorin. "Welcome Thorin, son of Thrain," he greeted.

Thorin's gaze remained firmly locked on the ground. He was clearly uncomfortable with the greeting. "I do not believe we have met," Thorin replied.

Really? He couldn't even say 'hello'? "You have your grandfather's bearing. I knew Thror when he ruled under the Mountain," Lord Elrond explained.

"Indeed; he made no mention of you," Thorin sneered.

"Well that's nice," I huffed.

Lord Elrond didn't look like he was even slightly bothered by the way that Thorin was speaking to him. I assumed that he knew just how much Thorin hated him and being here. But that still didn't excuse Thorin's behavior. The elves had saved our lives and were now helping us. They were keeping us safe and offering us refuge. I was bothered by Thorin's words, but my head was spinning too much for me to snap back at him. Ignoring Thorin's obvious insult, Lord Elrond turned back and began speaking in Sindarin. How did I know that?

"Nartho i noer, toltho i viruvor. Boe i annam vann a nethail vin."

There had been no subtitles in the movie. So how did I know that he was saying: "Light the fires, bring forth the wine. We must feed our guests." I had no idea. I didn't speak Sindarin. Before today, I hadn't even known that I knew what language they spoke. I'd always just called it Elvish. My head snapped up in surprise. Where the hell had that come from? The dwarves were looking back and forth between themselves, grumbling in aggravation at the fact that they didn't understand what Lord Elrond had said, who was still looking straight at Thorin.

Only Kili had noticed my instant reaction. "Are you alright?" Kili asked me.

"I - Yes. Just... nothing, never mind," I said.

There was no way to explain what had just happened. How was I supposed to admit that I understood Sindarin all of a sudden? "What is he saying? Does he offer us insult?" Gloin growled angrily.

The dwarves were growing bellicose as they began gripping their weapons uneasily. Gloin looked like he was about to move forward and cut off Lord Elrond's head. "No, master Gloin, he's offering you food," Gandalf said exasperatedly.

The dwarves all stepped back, gathered in small circles, and quickly discussed that revelation among themselves. I rolled my eyes as I stepped off to the side of their conversations. Finally, Gloin looked back at Lord Elrond and said, "Ah well, in that case, lead on."

But just as we were about to step forward, Lord Elrond's eyes shot over to my bandaged arm. His eyes traced up to my face curiously. "Were you hit by one of the Orc's arrows, Leah?" Lord Elrond asked me curiously.

The entire company stopped and turned around to look at me. "Oh, my arm was scratched by one of them just before I tumbled down the hole. No big deal. We just have to keep it clean," I said, embarrassed at the sudden attention.

They were going to start looking at me like the damsel-in-distress. "I fear, my dear, that it may be a bigger issue than you think that it is," Lord Elrond said gently.

"Excuse me?" I asked fearfully.

Kili - who had come back to my side to assist me in getting around - tightened his grip almost painfully around my waist. "Most Gundabad Orcs use Morgul bows," Lord Elrond explained.

"I - I don't know what that means," I stuttered.

"The arrows used in those bows have taken the Morgul venom from the Morgul blades used by the Ringwraiths and implanted them in the arrowhead," Lord Elrond explained.

Weren't those the creepy black things in Lord of the Rings? Damn me for not reading those books more than once! That was when it dawned on me. I knew exactly what was happening. Idiot... What an idiot I was. How didn't I realize the truth? I remembered being in the theater and gasping when Kili had been struck by the Orc arrow. It had let to the eventual blood poisoning that Tauriel had saved him from. Currently the same thing was happening to me. I had just gotten a lesser injury that had been spotted much sooner than his would be.

Well, I knew that he wasn't exaggerating the pain in the film. My entire arm felt like it was on fire. "We're lucky that we've caught the injury early. If left untreated, the venom will cause excruciating pain and eventual death. You already appear to be experiencing the early symptoms," Lord Elrond said, looking me over closely.

The entire company began muttering worriedly, closing in around me. "Can it be fixed?" Kili asked sharply.

"Of course. We have wonderful healers. You will be ready for dinner tonight. Come," Lord Elrond said.

"Alright," I mumbled.

Getting my arm healed sounded wonderful at the moment. I began to pull myself out of Kili's grasp when Thorin snapped at him, "Go with her."

"We will provide her with the best care possible. You need not fear," Lord Elrond reassured the rest of the company.

"I'll go with her," Kili said, stepping forward.

Suddenly another elf with long, dark, hair stepped forward. He must have been the one that was planning on healing me. "Please get ready for dinner. I am well-trained for healing," the elf told Kili, who looked less-than-thrilled to be getting ordered around.

"We're not -" he began.

"It's fine," I interrupted, stepping in between the two, sensing the tension. But I was the one that needed to get healed! They could have their little pissing contest in between the dwarves and elves after my life was out of jeopardy. I laid a hand on Kili's chest, gently pushing him back. "Hey, it's fine. I'll see you in a few hours for dinner, alright?"

"Leah -"

Clearly, he didn't want me out of his sight. "It's okay. They saved us from the Orcs. They're giving us a place to eat and rest. They pointed out the poison in the first place. I think that we can trust them," I said confidently.

"Someone should -"

This time it was the dark-haired elf that interrupted Kili. "We'll take good care of your meleth," he promised.

The last word was clearly something in Sindarin. But he had said it too fast and I'd only been half paying attention. Did he call me a melon? They must have known what he had said, because there was an instant reaction from everyone in the company. I really wished that I had been paying attention because I so desperately wanted to know what he had said. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Thorin and the older dwarves growling conspiratorially between themselves. Thorin gave me a sharp glare as Kili turned a bright red.

What the hell had the elf called me? "What does that mean?" I asked softly, no wanting to sound like a complete moron.

"Come, Miss Ambrose, please," the elf called softly.

He was clearly trying to pull me along and not make things any more awkward. So, I turned back to Kili and gave as confident of a smile as I could. "Don't worry, I'll be right back," I told him.

Kili clearly didn't want to let go of me, but ultimately, he did. "All right. We'll see you at dinner."

"Of course," I said.

"Come, please," the dark-haired elf called.

"Thanks," I told him.

Tired as I was, and as desperate as I was to have the wound healed, I would have liked to stay a while. The elvish singing was lovely, especially in June under the stars. But I supposed that I could hear them later. Also, I would have liked to have a few private words with the people that seemed to know my name and all about me, although I had never seen them before. Plus, I thought their opinion of the adventure might be interesting. Elves knew a lot and were wondrous folk for news. They must have known what was going on among all the peoples of the land.

Perhaps they could have known about the fact that Azog wasn't dead. That would be good news to have shared before we got caught on our way out of Goblin Town. But it wasn't time to speak with each other right now. Perhaps another time. Perhaps before we left for the mountains. After all, right now the dwarves were all for supper as soon as possible. Not that I blamed them. I was starving. I was excited to get healed and have a real dinner. On the dwarves went, lead in the opposite direction as me, until they were brought to a good path and, at last, to the very brink of the river.

It was flowing fast and noisily. Above I could see that the sun had been all day on the snow far up above. There was only a narrow bridge of stone without a parapet, as narrow as a pony could well walk on; and over that they had to go, slow and careful, one by one. The elves had brought bright lanterns to the shore, and they sang a merry song as the party went across. Each dwarf wished me well and told the elves to care for me well as we finally went our separate ways, myself towards the palace and the dwarves down into a great hall.

As the dwarves and their chattering headed away down towards the hall, I headed off down a hallway with the dark-haired elf. From what I could hear as they walked off, the dwarves were going to be shown somewhere that they could get cleaned up before dinner. Which was a good idea, since they could really need a bath. Not that they would really enjoy getting cleaned up. That wasn't what they ever did. The two of us walked up and down hall after hall and I quickly lost track of where we were heading. Rivendell was too big.

For a long time as we walked, the two of us didn't speak to each other. It didn't take long for it to turn into a somewhat awkward silence. At least, on my part. I had a feeling that the elf barely even noticed my awkwardness. I realized as we walked that the elf was actually rather attractive. His dark hair was perfectly straight and braided through a crown. Was he royalty? I wasn't sure who he was, but then again, the only one that I recognized here was Lord Elrond. The only other elves I knew were Tauriel, Legolas, and Thranduil. We wouldn't meet them for months to come, anyways.

Finally, I couldn't stand walking in silence anymore. "Hello, by the way. I - uh - don't think that I ever said that," I stammered awkwardly.

The elf turned back to me. "Good afternoon."

"I'm Leah."

"My name is Elladan."

Now that name I did know. I was absolutely positive that I had heard that name before. It dawned on me suddenly. "Oh, you're one of Lord Elrond's kids, aren't you?" I asked.

Didn't he have himself and his brother? They were the older ones and Arwen was the younger one. Or something like that. Elladan looked over at me in surprise. "Yes, in fact, I am. Myself and my twin brother - Elrohir - are Lord Elrond's firstborn. My younger sister, her name is Arwen," Elladan said. I almost grinned. I would have loved to meet Arwen. "Might I inquire as to how you knew that?"

Uh-oh. Backpedal! "Um... Gandalf told me," I said dumbly.

If anyone would be able to cover for my knowledge of things that I shouldn't know, it was Gandalf. "Mithrandir has a bad habit of speaking where he shouldn't," Elladan said slowly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything," I said.

"It's quite alright, Miss Ambrose."

"Just Leah, I mean it."

"Of course," Elladan said. He glanced down at my bandaged wrists curiously. "Is there something wrong with your wrists?"

My hands went to my wrists. They were slowly healing. Now they were mostly itchy. "We were cornered by trolls a few days ago. I got hung to a tree for a number of hours while they were discussing how to eat us. My wrists got rubbed raw and we've been applying a salve to them since, to make sure that they don't get infected," I explained.

Elladan nodded thoughtfully. "I do believe that you are accident-prone, Leah Ambrose."

A small grin cracked over my lips. "Oh, you could say that."

"We can help you clean up the wrists as well."

"Thanks."

"My pleasure."

The two of us walked down another hallway as I practically staggered into the wall. I really needed to sit down. Hopefully we were getting close to the hospital. Or wherever they would heal me. "Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Of course," Elladan said.

"What was it that you said before I left the rest of the company? It sounded like you said... melon, or something like that," I said stupidly.

"Meleth," Elladan corrected. I swallowed nervously. That sounded far too familiar. "It means love."

"What?" I gasped.

"It means -"

"No, no, I heard you. Why -? Why would you have called me his love?" I stammered.

No one needed to be calling me Kili's love. Thorin would have a conniption. Elladan looked at me in surprise. "Pardon me, I was unaware that there were no romantic feelings there. It did not seem that way. He is very protective of you," Elladan explained.

Awkward... Now even complete strangers thought that Kili and I were romantically involved. That was not something I needed. "No. He's one of my best friends. I didn't even know him until we went on this journey. I've known him maybe for two months. That's about it. We're just friends... You know that elves don't really get along with dwarves. I just don't think that any of them want me away from them, with elves, where they can't see me. After all, Thorin ordered someone to come with me," I explained our situation as well as I could.

"Yes, of course. But he seemed to have the hardest time letting go," Elladan pointed out.

"Well..."

What could I say now? Elladan was right about that. "Pardon me, Leah. It is not my place to speak on the matter," he said. I shook my head. I could really use some advice about Kili. "But I am old. I see things."

"Things?" I repeated.

"A relationship blossoming."

"N - No."

"Of course, I could also be wrong." Why do all of you do that? Just give me a straight answer! I was about to ask Elladan to explain when he stopped me in front of a thick wooden door, intricately carved with flowers and vines. "We're here. Come in, please," Elladan prompted.

"Thanks," I breathed.

It was about damn time to get inside and get me fixed up. My arm was throbbing and and my head was spinning. I was getting weak on my feet as well. Elladan gently pushed open the door to allow me to walk inside. It appeared to be a bedroom that they were using as something like a healing chamber. Which was fine by me. Elladan almost immediately walked me into the bathroom. They must have been using some type of incense because it smelled wonderful in there. Although it was also making my head spin even more than it already was.

There was a bowl off to the side of us that was filled with some kind of root. It must have been whatever the root was that would draw out the poison. I vaguely recognized it as the root that Tauriel had used to save Kili. I smiled weakly at Elladan as I was seated with two elf maidens who had arrived just moments after we had. They must have been the healers. The two of them sat down on either side of me as they began pulling off the wrappings from my wrists and arm so that they could get cleaned. Elladan watched them work for a while in silence.

The elf maiden on my right pushed forward my injured shoulder. "Sit still for a moment," she warned me softly.

"Okay," I breathed.

"Athelas," Elladan whispered from his place, perched on the edge of the bathtub.

"What?" I asked.

"That's what they're putting on you. It's used to draw poison out of a wound," Elladan explained.

Anything to draw the damn poison out of the wound. It was getting worse and worse by the second. Slowly the elf maidens placed the athelas down against the wound - that had an eerie black webbing around it. The moment that it touched my skin there was an excruciating pain. My head dropped back against the edge of the chair as I groaned in pain. It hurt worse than the wound did. This was definitely not the way that I wanted to experience my first piece of comfort (the padded chair) in weeks.

It took a few minutes for the pain to recede. Eventually it seemed more like a dull throb in my arm. It took a few more minutes before the feeling finally turned to more of a cooling sensation. My head dropped back against the chair again as I brushed the sweat back off of my forehead. Now I was feeling much better. The elf maidens were quick to apologize for how painful the healing process was. I was quick to thank them for all that they were doing for me. They could have easily let me deal with the pain and ultimately my death.

"It should start to feel better soon," Elladan informed me.

"It already does. Thank you," I said breathlessly.

"Our pleasure," Elladan said for the three of them.

Eventually the elf maidens moved me off back into the bedroom for me to rest for a few minutes. I was allowed to lay in the fluffy bed, perfectly happy to get to have some real comfort. Hours could have passed while they fixed me up, putting me almost back to normal. The poison took a long time to completely pull out of my shoulder. Eventually the two elf maidens wrapped my arm back up - the root tucked into the wrapping - with the promise that the wound would be almost healed when I woke up in the morning.

That was much quicker than I had been expecting. Once they were done healing my arm, the two women went down to my wrists. Right now, they were ugly, jagged, pieces of torn skin. I really hoped that they could fix it because it looked terrible. The feeling had been getting better over the days, but it still wasn't good enough. I wasn't sure what it was that they put on them but I felt the cooling sensation, which was much appreciated. I would be back to normal by the morning. At that point, all of the injuries would likely be back to normal.

As the elf maidens began cleaning up the supplies and old bandages, I turned to Elladan, who had been watching over me the entire time. "Thank you for all of this," I said.

"It is our pleasure, Leah," Elladan said.

The elf maiden with soft blonde hair - much like my own - stood at my side with her hands knitted behind her back. "Dinner will be served soon, Miss. Shall we assist you in getting ready?" she asked gently.

"Uh, yeah, sure," I muttered dumbly.

How did royalty ever get used to people speaking to them like that? It was so formal and awkward. "I will return to escort you down in a bit," Elladan said respectfully, getting to his feet.

"Thanks, Elladan," I said.

"You are welcome," he replied.

The elf maidens instantly went to work. I could tell by the look on their faces that they must have thought that I would be a ton of work. They weren't completely wrong. I must have looked rather terrible. The two elf maidens were quick to ask me if I would be all right spending the night - and any more that we would spend in Rivendell - in the bedroom that we were currently in. For propriety's sake, as they said. I really didn't like the idea of being away from the company, but I agreed since we were their guests. It would just be for a few nights, after all.

It took a long time for the two elf maidens to get me ready for dinner. It seemed silly. When I was at home, I always merely wore my pajamas to bed. But that would have been inappropriate around the company. Perhaps I could eventually ease them into the idea, because right now, getting fully dressed and made up for dinner seemed a little bit odd. To my complete pleasure, I was finally allowed to take a bath. More like they insisted on taking a bath, really. It seemed like the first time that I had gotten to take a bath in months.

One of the first things that they did was wash my face and body completely off, clearing it of the dead and dirty skin. I realized with a hint of disgust that blood and dirt and sweat ran off in droves. Gross... The good thing was that I actually smelled like a female for the first time in a long time since the water was laced with flowers and all sorts of perfumes. The two elf maidens cleared my skin of excess hair with a straight razor. I nearly jumped up and screamed at the excitement of being hairless again. The elves laughed at my excitement.

The two women pared off my nails with a knife before letting me climb out of the bathtub. My skin was smooth and hairless. According to the two elf maidens, the potion that they had put in the bath water would make the hair grow back even slower. It was nice to see them laugh when I had asked them to bottle some up for me. As they dried me off and ran some type of lotion over my skin, I took in a deep breath and grinned. I felt much better right now than I had in a long time.

It shouldn't have surprised me that they had placed me in a dress. It was the first time that I was glad to be in one, because it was absolutely lovely. The dress was a deep forest green at the top, fading to an off-white color at the bottom with just a tinge of green. The top of the dress was a sweetheart neckline with some type of crystal beading sewn into the edges. It dipped much lower than I had been expecting it to and I grinned. My style, indeed. The bodice was tight silk made much like the corsets that I usually wore over my tunics. The bottom of the dress hit my toes and flowed gently.

The elves gave me a pair of soft slippers to walk around in that felt kind of like the bedroom slippers I had back home. There was a jeweled belt that wrapped around my waist and hung loosely in front of me. The most impressive part of the dress was something like a cloak that fell back over my shoulders. It was tied around my throat, where two pieces of material shifted off to the sides and drooped down my back, leaving my shoulders exposed. It was the darkest part of the ensemble and jeweled just like the neckline and belt.

It took me less than a second to tell them that I thought that it was lovely. The elves smiled at their handiwork before moving to my face, which apparently needed a lot of work. They ended up putting something on it that looked a little bit like shine. Their version of makeup, I supposed. It made me look almost ethereal. My hair ended up with gentle curls in it. My bangs were pulled back into intricate braids that wrapped around the back of my head a few times and then fell down over my back. The entire thing was absolutely beautiful, the entire thing.

Elladan walked back into the room the moment that they had finished getting me ready. He looked me up and down in a respectful manner and smiled politely. "You look a bit like an elf," he commented.

"Is that a compliment?" I asked carefully.

Did I look stupid? "It is," Elladan said, grinning.

A small blush fell over my face. "Well thank you. To all of you, it's lovely," I said, giving the two elf maidens a hug. The two of them smiled gratefully at my appreciation. "I could never do something like this."

"You are welcome," the two elf maidens said.

As the two of them left the room, I was left alone with Elladan. I smiled at him as I awkwardly shifted the skirt of the dress around my feet. "Maybe if I grow another few inches, I can actually be an elf," I teased.

"And what of a dwarf?" Elladan asked.

My face burned. "I think I prefer to not have a beard."

Elladan smiled at my hesitance. "You would look lovely even with a beard," he said. I blushed stupidly again. "In fact, I do think that your dark-haired friend would appreciate that even more."

"Shut up," I snapped.

Although, in the back of my mind, I really was hoping that Kili would appreciate the work that had been done on me. Elladan and I smiled at each other as we walked through the halls to get back towards where the dwarves were eating dinner. I was so excited because I really was starving. It seemed like it had been days since we had eaten. Even down the hallway I could hear the dwarves laughing and chattering back and forth loudly. I gave Elladan a guilty smile. I had kind of forgotten that they had destroyed Rivendell while they were there.

The two of us rounded the corner in to the table but I refused to walk any further for a moment. I needed a few seconds to gather myself. The dwarves had only ever seen me in trousers and blouses. I had never worn makeup or been dressed up around them. I could only imagine the looks that I would get. I didn't even look like myself right now. It would take me a second to get used to the way that I looked right now. I glanced into the banquet hall and smiled. The dwarves were sitting around the table; however, they didn't look appreciative of the elves' food.

Ori was holding up a piece of lettuce with a confused face. "Try it. Just a mouthful," Dori goaded his younger brother.

"I don't like green food," Ori groaned.

Had they ever even tried any green food? I rolled my eyes at them as Dwalin began pawing through a bowl of greens. "Where's the meat?" he asked curiously.

Oin held up a vegetable with his knife and looked at in disgust. "Have they got any chips?" Ori asked hopefully.

All around the great hall the elves were doing everything in their power to make the dwarves feel welcome, but they were all being completely moronic. The least that they could do was pretend to be grateful. There was an elf maiden playing the harp in the background. I thought that it was lovely, but clearly the rest of the elves didn't appreciate the soft music. Elrond and Gandalf were walking through the halls of Rivendell, looking at the dwarves. Elladan clearly didn't like the way that the dwarves were acting. I turned to him apologetically.

"Sorry, they're not really used to other cultures," I said awkwardly, running my hands through my curled hair.

"So, I see," Elladan said.

"Kind of you to invite us," Gandalf told Lord Elrond, drawing my attention back to them. "I'm not really dressed for dinner."

"Well, you never are," Lord Elrond replied.

The two of them laughed. So did I. I could believe that. Gandalf was a wandering wizard. I couldn't remember him ever looking halfway decent until he had become Gandalf the White - or something like that - in Lord of the Rings. Damn, I should have watched those movies more often. I watched as Gandalf and Lord Elrond walked up the stairs and into the courtyard where the dwarves were still arguing about their food. I debated on moving towards the table when I saw Kili's gaze shift towards the harp player. My foot hesitated on the first step.

Elladan hesitated behind me. He looked a little confused at my actions. But I didn't remember this part of the movie... To my surprise - and aggravation - I saw Kili staring at the elf maiden playing the harp in wonder. She was staring back at him with a half-grin. Kili's lips turned upwards in a grin as he gave her a wink. A slight pang of jealousy shot through me. Why? He owed me nothing... That didn't change the fact that I was thrilled to see Dwalin scowling at him. Kili's face fell and he gave a very embarrassed look, realizing that he had been caught flirting with her.

"Can't say I fancy elf-maids myself," Kili said, shaking his head. I rolled my eyes. Liar. "Too thin. They're all high cheekbones and creamy skin. Not enough facial hair for me. Although... that one there's not bad."

Kili was looking up at an elf passing behind him. "That's not an elf-maid," Dwalin informed him.

This had to have been in the extended edition, because I didn't remember any of it. But I was more than happy to get to see it right now. Kili deserved a moment to feel like a fool, since he so often was effortlessly calm. As Kili's face fell, Dwalin gave him a wink and the rest of the table erupted into laughter. Even Balin - who normally hated our joking around - gave the slightest grin. I giggled softly as I placed a hand over my mouth. Kili nodded, trying to laugh along with everyone else.

"That's funny," he mumbled, going back to his food.

"And as for human maids, lad?" Balin asked.

Kili's face turned red for a moment before he managed the slightest grin, tossing a roll at Balin. The rest of the dwarves began laughing even louder as my cheeks burned stupidly. Subtlety was one of the many things that the dwarves were lacking. It was obvious to me - and everyone else - that the dwarves were making a hit at me, since our friendship with each other was very obviously flirtatious. We clearly cared for each other. Even Elladan cracked a grin at their words. I groaned, noticing Kili looking even more embarrassed than before.

Come on, guys. Change the subject to something else, please. I was so desperate for them to stop making fun of our relationship. It was bad enough without them teasing us. Maybe it was time for me to go back to my bedroom and pretend that I had fallen asleep and missed dinner. It would be much easier for me to gather my bearings again. But Elladan was blocking my pathway back to my bedroom. So I slowly walked towards the table. I could see an elf maiden playing a flute. Oin stuffed a napkin in his hearing trumpet, looking very happy that he could no longer hear the music.

As I walked up, I decided to tease Kili one more time. "Planning on embarrassing yourself again?" I called over their chatter.

The entire table instantly went silent at my entrance as their gazes traveled over me. I noticed that even the music from the elves had faltered slightly. Oh, yeah, I should have gone back to my bedroom and avoided this. I must have looked a lot worse than I had thought that I did. Trying to push back the urge to run, I merely gave a very embarrassed smile. Kili stood straight up, probably preparing to welcome me, but instead knocked straight into the table and collapsed again. The dwarves all laughed at his actions as I walked over, blushing softly, taking my seat next to him.

As everyone went back to their dinners, Kili leaned into me. "You look lovely," he whispered.

"Thank you," I whispered back. I noticed that Elladan was still standing behind me, clearly wanting to keep an eye on me until I had actually seated myself at the table. "And thank you, Elladan."

"My pleasure, Leah," Elladan said.

He gave me a gentle bow and I smiled. But there was one person who wasn't smiling at Elladan. Kili was giving him a sharp scowl. "Are you okay?" I asked Kili worriedly.

"What?" Kili asked confusedly, turning back to me, seemingly having almost forgotten that I was here. "Yes, I'm fine."

He didn't seem fine. He seemed quite bothered about something. But I decided not to comment on it and go back to what I had said before. "I meant what I asked before. Are you planning on embarrassing yourself again?" I teased.

Kili's lips turned upwards. "Not right now. Although, as long as you're around, dressed like that, it is very likely that I will manage to embarrass myself again," Kili said honestly.

"It's okay. It's cute," I said brightly.

"Cute, am I?" Kili asked teasingly.

"You're adorable," I replied.

We both laughed as Kili ran his hands through the curls around my shoulders. I laughed softly as we turned back to our dinners. I didn't want to look at him more than I absolutely had to right now. Because I was still embarrassed at the way that he was looking at me. His eyes, darker than they normally were, seemed to be following each line of my body. Look at something else, Leah. Anything else. I noticed that most of the dwarves didn't seem to like the dinner that they had been offered. I rolled my eyes at their childishness.

"It's free food. Stop being so picky," I snapped as Kili poked at the lettuce on his plate.

"It's -"

"Green?" I interrupted.

"Odd."

"Come on, try something new."

On my other side, Fili raised up a full leaf. "What is it?" he asked.

My jaw dropped. "It's lettuce, brainless!" I snapped. Fili glared at me. "You've never had lettuce before?"

"Perhaps when it was ground up and put in something else," Fili explained.

"Honestly, you boys are pathetic. Just eat it," I said.

They both took in small bits of the lettuce. Like little children, they screwed their faces up in disgust. "That's disgusting," Kili said. I scoffed as I took a bite of my own salad. "Do you like this?"

"Every now and again," I said honestly. Salads weren't my favorite thing in the world, but I definitely liked them from time to time. "Especially after I've only had meat, cheese, and god knows what else on this trip so far. Not that Oin's cooking is bad."

"Better than yours?" Kili asked.

"By a landslide," I said quickly. Kili's eyebrows raised in surprise. Did he not understand what that meant? "Sorry, was that odd?"

Kili grinned. "Perhaps it was a little bit odd, but I like it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." My cheeks lit up slightly as I looked down at the table. When I glanced back up, I saw that Kili was staring at me even closer than he had been before. Come on, Kili, you're making me blush. Look away! "You look the slightest bit like an elf," he commented.

"That's what Elladan said," I replied.

"Who is he?" Kili asked.

"Elladan?"

"Yes."

Saying an elf probably would have been considered obvious. So, I said what I did know about Elladan. "He's one of Lord Elrond's kids. He and his twin brother are their oldest. They have a younger sister, Arwen. He's apparently the only one in Rivendell right now. Lord Elrond's asked him to look after me," I said, remembering what Elladan had told me during my healing process.

Apparently, the dwarves weren't good enough protectors. Lord Elrond wanted one of his own kids looking after me. Why I needed extra protection was another question altogether. "You don't need someone else looking after you. You have us," Kili said defensively.

"Green-eyed monster?" I asked teasingly.

"Excuse me?" Kili asked.

His eyes widened slightly. I laughed under my breath. Of course, he didn't know what that meant. "Means you're jealous," I explained.

Kili guffawed at the insinuation. "I am not jealous. I just - I don't trust elves," he explained weakly.

"Elves in general or just that one?" I asked.

Kili gave me a long look. "Elves in general, and definitely that one," he eventually admitted. I couldn't help it. I smiled down into my food as Kili very briefly brushed his hand against my knee. My skin raised in goosebumps at his touch. I couldn't help but to wonder what another one of his touches would feel like... Stop it, Leah! "Where are you sleeping tonight?"

Grateful to Kili for finally saying something, I turned back towards the hall entry. "They have a room for me back that way. They, uh... don't seem to think that our previous sleeping arrangements are exactly appropriate," I said awkwardly.

"Will you be staying there?" Kili asked me.

Did I really want to be staying there? No. I would have much rather been with Kili and the rest of the dwarves. But it wasn't really an option. "We're in their homes. It's their rules. So I think that I might have to kind of abide by them." Kili definitely didn't look thrilled. "But I doubt that we'll be here more than a few days. I'll be back to using you as a pillow in no time," I teased.

"As well as drooling on me?" Kili added playfully.

My jaw fell open. "I don't drool!" I snapped.

Kili grinned, knowing that he had embarrassed me. "It's quite alright. You can do it as long as you like," Kili said.

Very daringly I asked, "What about after the quest?"

You should not have said that! It made it sound like I wanted to sleep with him, which I did, but it wasn't appropriate for me to say that. Much to my pleasure, Kili grinned. "If you would like," he said.

"Would you?" I asked carefully.

"I would," Kili said.

There was a broad grin written across his face. My face must have been every shade of fuchsia, magenta, and crimson possible. Did he want to sleep with me, too? Perhaps, but I had a feeling that he would never admit it. He wasn't too proper to not mention the fact that he wanted me in his bed, but he would have never explicitly said that he wanted to sleep with me. To my surprise, I was summoned to the other end of the table by Gandalf a few moments later. I stood and walked over to see that Lord Elrond was examining the swords that Gandalf and Thorin had found in the troll hoard.

It appeared that Lord Elrond was examining Orcrist first. I could see my sword also laying on the table. They must have brought it in with the rest of my things when I had gone off with Elladan. "This is Orcrist, the Goblin Cleaver. A famous blade, forged by the High Elves of the West, my kin," Lord Elrond said, examining the sword closely. He turned it over and handed it back to Thorin. "May it serve you well."

Thorin looked shocked to see how accepting Lord Elrond was of him having an elvish sword. I grinned to myself as Lord Elrond then picked up my small blade. He examined it closely and curiously. "This sword remains unnamed. It has never seen battle," Lord Elrond finally explained. "May it serve you well and may it earn the name that you give it."

He handed it back to me and I accepted it with a smile. "Thank you, Lord Elrond."

It was lovely and all mine to name. The question was, what did I want to name it? Lord Elrond then picked up Gandalf's. "And this is Glamdring, the Foehammer, sword of the King of Gondolin. These swords were made for the goblin wars of the First Age..." he began explaining.

But, if we were being honest, I wasn't much into the whole history of Middle Earth. I had never really been one for history. It had always rather bored me, as a matter of fact. Perhaps it was because no one ever really made it interesting. There were too many confusing words and names. Elrond's voice dropped and faded off as I turned away to leave. Just before I could leave, though, something else distracted me. I could see that Bilbo was pulling out his sword to examine it. Sting, as he would eventually name it. That one I remembered.

It was a lovely sword. Just slightly smaller than the one that I was using. "I wouldn't bother, laddie. Swords are named for the great deeds they do in war," Balin said, not unkindly.

"What are you saying, my sword hasn't seen battle?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"I'm not actually sure it is a sword; more of a letter opener, really," Balin replied

Bilbo looked down at his sword curiously. As I walked past, I laid my hand on Bilbo's shoulder. He glanced up at me and smiled, placing his hand over mine. "Don't listen to him. It's not the sword, it's the person holding it," I said softly.

Bilbo's face turned up in a slight smile. "Thank you, Leah."

As I turned back to take my place in between Fili and Kili, Lord Elrond's voice echoed through the dining hall. "How did you come by these?" he asked.

"We found them in a troll hoard on the Great East Road, shortly before we were ambushed by Orcs," Gandalf explained.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Thorin's not-so-subtle glare that he aimed towards Gandalf. "And what were you doing on the Great East Road?" Lord Elrond asked curiously.

"Excuse me," Thorin growled.

There was something bitter about the way that he had gotten back to his feet. I assumed that he was fed up with being around the elves constantly. Plus, he must have realized that Lord Elrond already knew what we were all planning to do. Maybe he just wanted to get out of here because he was afraid that he was going to skewer Lord Elrond with Orcrist and really ruin dinner. No one ever answered Lord Elrond as we all went back to our dinners. I chatted away with some of the dwarves for a long while before I overheard Lord Elrond speak again.

"Thirteen dwarves, a halfling, and a human woman. Strange traveling companions, Gandalf," Lord Elrond said suspiciously, taking a drink of his wine.

"These are the descendants of the House of Durin," Gandalf said proudly, motioning to the dwarves. "The noble, decent, folk." At that moment, Nori tucked away a flask. "They're surprisingly cultured." Of course, Bombur took that moment to stuff his face with food, eating without bothering to close his mouth. "They've got a deep love of the arts."

Nori turned back to the harp-playing elf and growled, "Change the tune, why don't you? I feel like I'm at a funeral."

He plugged his ears as Oin asked, "Did somebody die?"

I snorted under my breath at the excitable look on Bofur's face. "All right, lads. There's only one thing for it," Bofur called.

The poor elves had no idea what they had gotten themselves into the moment that they had invited the dwarves into their home. I knew that they would make a royal mess of the place. Bofur threw himself backwards out of the chair that he had been sitting in and bounced back to his feet. Without giving the elves or anyone else a moment to process what was happening, Bofur jumped up onto the table and began knocking over plates and drinks, not giving a care in the world. Bofur held out a hand to Gandalf and Lord Elrond and began to sing:

"There's an inn, there's an inn, there's a merry old inn beneath an old grey hill,  
And there they brew a beer so brown  
That the Man in the Moon himself came down one night to drink his fill.

"The ostler has a tipsy cat that plays a five-stringed fiddle;  
And up and down he saws his bow  
Now squeaking high, now purring low, now sawing in the middle.

"So the cat on the fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle, a jig that would wake the dead:  
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,  
While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:  
‘It’s after three!’ he said."

It took mere seconds for the dwarves to start singing and pounding on the table, laughing and playing along, singing the tune along with Bofur. I began giggling happily. It was adorable to see them in their element. In seconds there was also food getting thrown back and forth disgustingly. Come on, guys. Pretend that you have some manners. The elves had all long since stopped playing their music and were now staring at the dwarves in disgust. As the song ended the dwarves erupted into laughter as the food literally went flying throughout the hall.

Much to my amusement, Kili pegged some mashed potatoes right next to Lindir's head. The elf looked shocked and horrified that he had to deal with them. It took almost ten minutes for the dwarves to stop laughing and calm themselves down. Eventually we all continued eating our dinners. In the now-calmer air I began chatting with the rest of the dwarves and finishing my salad. What was left of it, at least. Despite them ruining the hall, I was having more fun tonight than I had in a long time. I laughed along with the rest of them all night long as I glanced out in the distance.

There was a beautiful blue light spreading over the waterfalls and mountains of Rivendell. To my surprise, Kili leaned into my ear and dropped his voice so that no one else could hear. "Pretty, isn't it?" Kili whispered.

"It's a lovely view," I breathed.

"Would you like to go for a walk?" Kili offered.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go," I said happily.

A romantic walk in the moonlight of Rivendell... It probably wasn't something that I needed but it was definitely something that I wanted. It would likely confuse my feelings for Kili all over again, but I didn't care. I wanted to go. The two of us left dinner together, mostly ignoring the looks and comments that we were getting from the rest of the dwarves. I was extremely grateful that Fili spoke with Thorin for a while to keep him from asking where the two of us were going. We quickly slipped from dinner and headed out into the gardens. It was the loveliest sight I had ever seen.

"Is your arm feeling better?" Kili finally asked, breaking the peaceful silence.

"Yes, it is, actually. The venom is apparently pretty fast-working. I was already feeling pretty nasty when Elladan had a few elf maidens put the root against it," I explained.

Kili's eyes narrowed. "Elladan seems to have taken well to you."

There was definitely something tense in his voice. My head tilted to the side slightly. "He's been kind to have taken care of me. Not that I would rather have him taking care of me," I said quickly, spotting the bitter look in Kili's eyes. I didn't know Elladan. I appreciated him, but nowhere near as much as I did Kili. "I mean, trust me. I know the company and love you all - even the ones who don't really love me - and I... I'm rambling. Sorry."

"That's all right," Kili said, grinning. "I just meant that -"

"That you don't trust the elves?" I interrupted.

Kili gave me a knowing smile. "You can imagine that growing up with Thorin has planted some seeds in my mind," he explained. Another one of my sayings. I smiled at Kili, letting him know that he had used it correctly. "We just care for you, Leah. No one wants to see you in their company while the rest of us are predisposed."

"Yeah, I understand," I said truthfully. As we meandered through the dimly lit pathway, I decided to add, "The entire company or are we talking something a little more specific?"

"Well I definitely care for you the most," Kili stated proudly.

"You sound proud of that fact."

"Oh, I am."

At least I knew that I would always have a friend on this journey. A friend, if nothing else. In the back of my mind there was still a slightly rooted fear of what would happen once Tauriel came into the picture. Would Kili suddenly forget about me? My worries were silenced as I felt Kili's arm wrap around the back of my waist, keeping me walking at pace with him. If there was one thing that I knew, Kili had definitely gotten touchier in the last few days. I didn't mind one bit. I smiled to myself and tucked my head into his shoulder as we stood side-by-side in the greenery.

Just off in the distance was one of the magnificent waterfalls. For a moment I debated on asking Kili if he wanted to go swimming but I changed my mind at the last moment. That was probably too inappropriate. Instead we settled on chatting lowly with each other. I was very grateful that we were far enough into the gardens that none of the dwarves or elves could hear or see us. This was one of our moments and we spent it speaking in hushed tones about the beauty of Rivendell and what it was like for us to have made it to the first big location on our journey.

Eventually our conversation turned back to the elves. "As much as I may dislike the elves, I am very pleased that they were able to save you. The venom could have been deadly," Kili said worriedly.

My head lifted off of his shoulder. "Thankfully it was all okay. Lord Elrond was quick to notice that it was a Morgul blade that had done the damage and Elladan jumped into action, making sure that the elf maidens who were caring for me had the root... whatever it was called," I said.

Kili's face knitted into a scowl. "Yes, Elladan is wonderful."

He's definitely got the green-eyed monster. "But there's someone that I like much better," I teased.

We were still standing pressed together as I glanced up and smiled at Kili. His eyes playfully bored into mine and I felt the little flutter of nerves acting up again. To my complete pleasure - making my heart skip a beat - Kili leaned down and brushed a kiss against my cheek. It wasn't the first time that he had done so, but it was the first time that the kiss had almost pressed against the side of my mouth. It was the closet that we had ever come to really kissing each other. And this time - much to my surprise - he was the one who had initiated it.

His lips seemed to linger a few seconds longer than he had to before he finally pulled away. I did the same, hoping that he couldn't hear my heart hammering against my ribs. Once we were back to our original spots, I realized that Kili was staring at me and had been for a few good moments. There was a burning sensation in the pit of my stomach. I so desperately wanted to have Kili the same way that I used to be able to have Brian. That was the one thing that I did miss about the old world. Getting to do what you wanted with someone without repercussions.

I was very glad when Kili spoke again, shattering my train of inappropriate thoughts. "Leah?"

Oh, come on, Kili. stop ruining the moment and kiss me! "Yes?" I asked as calmly as possible.

"I do remember you once mentioning that you were only staying with us until we reached Rivendell."

Just like that, the peaceful air that we had created around the two of us was shattered. The image of a perfect first kiss fell away from me as reality set back in. My head shot upright. He was right... When I still thought that this was all a dream, I made Gandalf promise to bring me back home once we reached Rivendell for Lord Elrond to help. I hadn't thought about that in a long time, which naturally made me twinge with guilt. My parents, my sister, my boyfriend, and my friends. None of them had so much as crossed my mind in weeks. I had been so happy with the company.

"No, yeah, I did," I coughed awkwardly. "Um..."

"Were you planning on leaving?" Kili asked carefully.

The thought of leaving now broke my heart. I wanted to be with them. "Honestly, I hadn't really thought about it in a while. I've been really happy with the company. Did you want me to go back home?" I asked slowly.

"No!" Kili gasped suddenly. I jumped in surprise as Kili reached out for my hands apologetically, leaving us both laughing. "No, of course I don't want you to go back home."

"Some of the others seem like they'd like me to," I muttered.

Kili shook his head, his hands tightening over mine. "Everyone has opened you to you since you've been here. We all - even Thorin - enjoy having you around. No one wants to see you leave."

Thorin hated me... "What about you?" I asked curiously.

Kili flashed a grin. "Oh, I'd be devastated if you left."

"Be serious," I snapped.

His grin fell. "I am."

Would he really be devastated if I left? I wasn't sure. But I knew that I would be. Even if I could really get home now that we were in Rivendell, did I want to leave? "Can I be honest?" I asked Kili.

"I'd like that," he replied.

"There are days when I really miss my family. I miss my parents and my sister and all of my friends from home. I grew up with them. But it never really felt like they understood me, you know? Being here, with all of you, I feel like you understand me. In your own ways, at least. It would really hurt to leave you all. Especially you. And I think that Robbie would have wanted me to stay on the journey. Hell, he would have wanted to come."

The two of us stood and stared at each other in silence for a few moments. I had meant every word that I'd said. Mom and Dad simply weren't around that often. But I did miss getting to talk to them when I had the chance. And Harley... I really did miss my sister. Plus, all of my friends and Brian. Our nights out were always something to be cherished. But there was still something missing from that old life. Passion. People who really understood me. I had that here. The dwarves were beginning to like me more and more. Perhaps everyone else would have wanted me to come home but Robbie would have told me to stay.

Because this place did feel like home. "This is a choice that you have to make and you alone. But if it's not too bold of me to say, I would very much like it if you stayed," Kili said quietly.

"No, it's not too bold," I said, blushing stupidly. "I think I need some advice."

If I wasn't here, who would save the three of them? "Who would take up my entire bedroll at night if not you?" Kili teased.

Most mornings I did wake up to see that I had pulled Kili's blankets onto myself. "You wouldn't miss me that much. It might be nice for you to have that entire bedroll to yourself again," I pointed out.

"Quite on the contrary, Leah. I would very much miss having someone to share it with," Kili argued.

"That big bed in Erebor will be quite lonely."

For a moment I merely stared at Kili. That was when my previous words came back to me. That was something that I would have said to Brian or any other guy that I was trying to playfully tease. It had been an automatic response, as so many other things that I had told Kili were. Stupid accidents that made me sound terrible. A monstrous blush flooded its way down my face onto my neck and chest. I must have looked like a Christmas tree. But I couldn't believe that I had just said that. Idiot! Kili didn't seem affected by my words though. He grinned playfully at me.

"Perhaps I'll get someone to share it with me," Kili teased.

"You'll have to ask her," I said softly. The air was too tense so I was quick to add, "Or him, I don't judge."

Kili's face fell as he glared at me. "You're a pain," he snapped. We both started laughing madly as we leaned up against each other. Once he had finally stopped laughing, Kili straightened up and gave me a long look. "Do you think that she would say yes?"

Say something honest... "I would," I said breathlessly.

And I would have gladly said yes. "You would?" Kili asked.

"Yes," I answered.

The two of us both smiled at each other again. It was another one of those moments. Those moments that felt like they could have extended for years. The ones that I never wanted to end. Kili and I turned straight into each other and I stared at him with wide eyes. I had no idea where the two of us went from here. So, I merely gave Kili an even stare, wishing so desperately that I could read his mind. But I couldn't do that. So, I settled for looking into his eyes. Which currently seemed to be tracing down to my mouth.

Yes... His eyes were definitely down at my mouth. For a moment I thought that he might have been looking at the dress, but I knew that he was staring at my mouth. Mostly because I realized that he was licking his lips gently. Perhaps there was a chance that he really did want to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss him. That one thing that I wanted more than anything right now. Forget him eventually dying. Forget him falling in love with Tauriel. Forget everything that was eventually going to matter. Right now, it was just about the two of us, in this moment.

Nothing else mattered right now. I could feel myself at peace for the first time in a long time. This was where I was happy to be. I decided to take things into my own hands - taking the dare that I was giving myself - and stepped forward towards him. Kili was quick to respond to my actions. One of his arms wrapped around my lower back to pull me right up against him. His other hand raised up and pushed the hair back off of my forehead. I shivered slightly as his fingers wrapped around the back of my neck, pressing against my spine.

Could he hear my heart pounding in my chest? I could feel it hammering against my own. Our bodies were pressed up against each other. The two of us seemed to meld in every single way, each curve matching. The pads of his fingers gently ran down my upper spine. My entire body gave a shiver that I had never experienced before. Yes. As our eyes locked again, I knew for a fact that he definitely wanted to kiss me. We were literally centimeters away from each other. Our lips were just inches from touching. One kiss wouldn't hurt us. No one ever had to know.

His nose had just barely brushed mine when there was a call. "Miss Ambrose."

Kili and I shot apart. I was instantly horrified at the realization that someone had seen us. Who the hell had just seen us mere seconds away from kissing? Kili stepped back from me as my head whipped around to see Elladan standing at the base of the staircase leading back into the hall. I was relieved to see that no one else was there. No one else would know that the two of us had just very nearly shared a kiss. Other than the burning embarrassment from having been caught, I was also furious that Elladan had interrupted us when we were so close to finally kissing.

But this was a damned movie and that meant that the kiss wouldn't happen that easily. Elladan knotted his hands behind his back as he walked up to us. "Pardon the interruption but you have been requested by Gandalf and my Lord Elrond," Elladan told me.

"Y - Yes, of course. Thank you, Elladan.," I stammered dumbly, looking back at Kili. "I'll -"

"Yes -" Kili interrupted.

"What?" I asked confusedly.

"You should -"

"Go?" I interrupted. "Yes."

"Uh -"

"See you," I mumbled, quickly cutting off whatever he was going to say. As I turned back to Elladan, I nodded at him to move. "Come on."

It looked like Kili might have still been planning on saying something, but I wanted no part of it. Nope. That didn't just happen. I won't even think of it. I practically burst into a run back towards the halls of Rivendell. With Elladan's long legs, he was easily able to keep up. I could tell that Kili was staring after us. As I glanced back, I saw him whip around to stare down at the water, which was good, because I didn't want to see him right now or vice versa. As Elladan and I walked off, I mentally berated myself both for almost kissing Kili and for not doing it.

It was not an easy internal battle to be had. "Would you like to speak about what I oversaw?" Elladan offered.

I turned towards him with a heated glare. "Oh, yeah. Sure. How about we talk about what the hell you were doing out there?" I snapped.

"Coming to get you," Elladan said obviously.

My head dropped back in annoyance. I knew that he was coming to get me. "Ugh... Elladan!" I barked, whipping back to him. Elladan looked very surprised at my change of demeanor. "When you see someone about to have a moment, you're not supposed to interrupt them! You're supposed to walk away and pretend that you couldn't find them!"

"My deepest apologies. Should I allow you to return to your friend?" Elladan offered.

"Not now!" I yelped. That would only make things worse. "The two of us might never be able to look at each other again."

"You seemed just fine with each other right now," Elladan pointed out.

He actually looked rather apologetic for having ruined our moment. "Because we didn't think that anyone would see and we weren't thinking about what would happen afterwards. We were just thinking about what the two of us were doing in the moment. Which was stupid! No. No, I don't want to go back to him," I said, more trying to convince myself than anyone else.

"Might I offer some advice?"

"What the hell? Can't get any more confused. Go ahead."

"Speaking as someone who is very old and has shared his number of loves, you should never let a love like that go," Elladan said quietly. I turned to him with a surprised look. I wanted to ask about his loves, but judging by the look on his face, he didn't want to talk about them. "You should tell him how you feel about him. Before something else happens."

Before something else happens... Could he have somehow known about Tauriel and Kili's eventual demise? I shifted awkwardly. "What if he doesn't feel the same?" I mumbled.

"Did you see the two of you together just now? I think you know how he feels about you," Elladan said.

"Yeah..." I mumbled. But did he really feel as strongly for me as I did for him? "Think he feels the same?"

"Perhaps he feels even stronger than you think," Elladan suggested. My face burned slightly as Elladan led me towards an open-air hall, much like the one that we had just had dinner in. "This is the council hall. I will leave you here."

"Thanks. Even though I still kind of want to kill you for interrupting earlier," I said.

Elladan gave me a scrutinizing stare before nodding. "My deepest apologies. Perhaps one day you will allow me to make it up to you," he said.

Make it up to me? I didn't have the slightest clue what that meant. "We'll see. See you later, Elladan," I called.

"Good luck, Leah."

Even though I liked Elladan, as he had been quite nice and helpful with me so far, I was still kind of steaming over the fact that he had interrupted my moment with Kili. Although it did save me from having to have an awkward conversation later. Desperate to think of anything else, I walked into the council hall, feeling very awkward. I was already nervous to be in here and even more so after what had happened with Kili. I didn't want to accidentally give what had happened away. As I walked in, I noticed that Gandalf, Thorin, Balin, and Bilbo were in the hall with Lord Elrond.

All of their heads turned towards me. "Welcome, Leah Ambrose," Lord Elrond greeted me.

My face burned slightly. "Hello. Sorry if I'm late."

"Please, come in, Miss Ambrose," Gandalf said.

Slowly I strode into the council hall to place myself at Bilbo's side. Thorin turned to Gandalf with a heated glare. "Our business is no concern of elves," he spat at Gandalf.

Gandalf rolled his eyes. "For goodness sake, Thorin, show him the map."

"It is the legacy of my people; it is mine to protect, as are its secrets," Thorin hissed.

Gandalf looked like he was about to take the map and shove it down Thorin's throat. "Save me from the stubbornness of Dwarves. Your pride will be your downfall. You stand here in the presence of one of the few in Middle Earth who can read that map. Show it to Lord Elrond," Gandalf barked back.

But Thorin still didn't look his he was going to budge. So, I decided to push him along a little bit. "Come on, Thorin. We need to get to the Lonely Mountain. If you want to complete this mission, you're going to have to get over it and let Lord Elrond help. Come on. Is your pride worth potentially failing?" I asked softly.

It had been as respectfully as I possibly could. I didn't want Thorin to get angry and not show Lord Elrond the map. I didn't remember much from it with the exception of the fact that there was some day that we had to be there by. Something about the moon or sunlight having to light something to make sure the door was visible. You are completely useless, Leah. In the meantime, Thorin was thinking quietly for a few seconds with everyone looking at him. Finally, he reached his hand into his coat pocket to hand the map over to Lord Elrond.

Balin reached for Thorin's arm to stop him. "Thorin, no!"

But Thorin quickly raised a hand to stop Balin from keeping him back. I was almost impressed to see just how determined Thorin looked with everything. He really did want to get back to his home. Thorin very slowly pulled the map out of his breast pocket as he walked towards Lord Elrond. I could see the look of horror written plainly across Balin's face as Thorin handed the map off to Lord Elrond. Bilbo and I watched in mild fascination. He unfolded the map and glanced down at it.

"Erebor," Lord Elrond said in surprise. Thorin finally glanced up to meet eyes with him. "What is your interest in this map?"

Thorin was about to speak, perhaps to tell the truth of what we were planning on doing, but Gandalf interrupted him. "It's mainly academic," he said. Thorin stopped speaking and looked over at Gandalf. "As you know, this sort of artifact sometimes contains hidden text. You still read Ancient Dwarfish, do you not?"

Thorin and Gandalf shared a meaningful look. Clearly Gandalf didn't want Lord Elrond to know what we were planning. Perhaps he really was afraid that, if Lord Elrond knew the truth, he would really try and stop us from going to Erebor. Did he know how this would ultimately affect the War of the Ring? If only I knew. Lord Elrond turned his back on us and walked off, still observing the map. As the moonlight hit the map, Lord Elrond lifted it even further, clearly realizing something.

"Cirth Ithil," he said.

Bilbo looked like he understood just as much as I did. "Moon runes. Of course," Gandalf said. He turned back to see the baffled look on our faces and smiled at us. "An easy thing to miss."

"Well in this case, that is true; moon runes can only be read by the light of a moon of the same shape and season as the day on which they were written," Lord Elrond explained, turning the map over and looking back at Thorin.

"Can you read them?" Thorin asked hopefully.

It was very hard not to laugh when Lord Elrond beckoned us forward. They would never understand just how coincidental it was that tonight was the one night that we could actually read the runes. Well done, Peter Jackson. Or Tolkien. Whoever wrote this part... Lord Elrond led us outside towards an open area, against the side of a cliff, with waterfalls surrounding us. It was a lovely sight as the moon barely lit the sky from behind the clouds. I had never been to a place like Rivendell where everything held some beauty. Even the large crystalline table that we now stood around.

"These runes were written on a Midsummer’s Eve by the light of a crescent moon nearly two hundred years ago. It would seem you were meant to come to Rivendell. Fate is with you, Thorin Oakenshield; the same moon shines upon us tonight," Lord Elrond explained, looking to Thorin.

"Well... that's lucky," I said awkwardly.

To my surprise, Lord Elrond turned to me with a little smile. Even Bilbo gave the slightest chuckle. Perhaps that was my role in the film. Idiotic but lovable comedic relief. But I wasn't really that funny. As we all looked up, the clouds covering the moon slowly floated away, and rays of moonlight hit the crystalline table, causing light to flow through the map that Lord Elrond had laid on the table. Ancient runes became visible on the map. It kind of reminded me of the way that the Marauder's Map worked in Harry Potter.

As they appeared up and down the page, Lord Elrond translated them out loud. "Stand by the gray stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the keyhole."

"Durin's Day?" Bilbo asked.

"What's that?" I added.

Gandalf turned back to us and said, "It is the start of the dwarves’ new year, when the last moon of autumn and the first sun of winter appear in the sky together."

"This is ill news," Thorin said, pacing back and forth shortly. "Summer is passing. Durin’s Day will soon be upon us."

"We still have time," Balin said, walking over from our side.

"Time? For what?" Bilbo asked.

"To find the entrance," Balin explained to us. He then turned back to Thorin. "We have to be standing at exactly the right spot at exactly the right time. Then, and only then, can the door be opened."

That was enough to garner Lord Elrond's attention. "So, this is your purpose, to enter the Mountain," he said.

"What of it?" Thorin asked defensively.

"There are some who would not deem it wise," Lord Elrond warned.

Thorin took the map back gruffly. "Who do you mean?" Gandalf asked confusedly.

"You are not the only guardian to stand watch over Middle Earth," Lord Elrond warned Gandalf.

Something clearly dawned in Gandalf's eyes. Perhaps he was finally realizing something. As Lord Elrond began to walk away, Gandalf turned slowly, thinking deeply. "He's just offering his opinion," I offered as helpfully as possible.

To my surprise, Lord Elrond turned back to come stand in front of me again. "Miss Ambrose," Lord Elrond called. I turned back with as close to a smile as I could. "When you get the chance, could we please take a moment to speak? Gandalf has mentioned a situation that you are stuck in that we may be able to assist with."

Right... Potentially going back home... "Yes - of course. Just tell me when," I stammered.

"Tomorrow. It is late. We should all be making for our chambers," Lord Elrond advised.

"Thank you, Lord Elrond," I said.

"Sleep well, all of you," Thorin advised.

We all began slowly heading out of the council hall. I fell into step with Bilbo. "Where are you sleeping, Leah?" he asked.

"The elves don't exactly think that our previous sleeping arrangement was appropriate. They asked me if I would mind taking a room for the night while you all take one of the halls," I explained.

"Are you alright with that?" Bilbo asked.

The only good thing was that I wouldn't have to listen to them snoring. But I would definitely miss being around everyone. What if they left in the middle of the night and didn't tell me? I just had to push that out of my mind for now. "Believe it or not, I think that I'll be alright. I might enjoy having a real bed for one night and not having to listen to the rest of the dwarves snoring," I said.

Bilbo grinned. "I'll be jealous of you."

"You could probably ask for your own room."

"At this point, I think that I'm used to them."

"Yes, I know how you feel," I said, giggling. I had never liked snoring but now I was just used to it. I liked being able to be sure that they were all still around. The two of us walked off together when I noticed a blurry figure out on the bridge out in the distance. Was he still there? "Would you excuse me for a little while? There's a conversation that I need to finish."

Bilbo didn't even bother to look. He already knew what was happening. "Ah, with Kili?" Bilbo asked. My face turned a slight red as I nodded bashfully. "Of course."

"I'll tell you about it later," I teased.

"I'll look forward to it," Bilbo shot back.

The two of us exchanged a quick hug as we headed back into the hallway. I took a few moments to bid the rest of the company goodnight. Not only the ones who had been in the council hall with us, but also the ones who had been in the dining hall as I headed back through it. That was where they were sleeping, so I stopped by to give them a quick parting word. They didn't seem to like that I was sleeping in a room away from the rest of them and agreed that the elves were too stiff. At least, the ones that Lord Elrond kept close to him.

Perhaps the dwarves were finally getting around to really liking me, because they clearly didn't like that the elves were keeping us apart. We spent a while telling each other goodnight before I finally headed off. I would likely walk back through the halls with Kili later to come back to our rooms, but not knowing what would end up happening tonight, I decided to say it right now. Who knew where the two of us were going to end up at the end of the night, anyways? It had to be Kili out there on the bridge. At least, I was hoping that it was, considering he wasn't here.

Knowing that I should have headed straight for bed to try and recover all of my thoughts - both about Kili and about what Lord Elrond wanted to talk about later - I headed back towards the bridge that we had been on earlier. My mind was racing too fast to think about going to bed anyways. I had too many things on my mind. My feelings for Kili, fear of the company discovering my secret, whatever Lord Elrond wanted to tell me (likely about potentially returning home), and my never-ending fear over whether or not I could save Fili, Kili, and Thorin.

It was enough to make anyone lose their minds. Slowly I meandered back out into the gardens and towards the glowing bride, now illuminated by the blue moonlight. It was lovely. To my surprise, the outline was of Kili's figure. He was still there, right in the place that I had left him an hour ago. Perhaps this entire time he had been waiting for me to come back. Maybe he wanted to talk about what had almost happened. I knew that it was the right thing to do. We were adults and perfectly capable of talking about our feelings. But the thought was enough to make me nervous.

"Glued to that spot, are we?" I called teasingly.

Kili turned back to me with a small grin. "Hoping that you would return," he answered honestly. I smiled as I walked up to lean against the bridge with him. "Anything discovered in the meeting?"

"Not really. We talked a little bit about the map. I don't know, I don't really understand much of it," I answered vaguely.

He could talk about the map with Thorin and the rest of the dwarves. They were the ones who were really invested in it and understood it. I had just gotten dragged along for the ride. As a brief silence passed, I realized that I felt a little bit awkward to be up here with him. Not something that I was used to. I really did like Kili and I wished that I would have just kissed him earlier. But that moment had passed. It wasn't the time right now. Perhaps I could have said something, but I was afraid to do it until I knew that the moment was right. Another time, I supposed.

In the meantime, I would settle on something that I had always been good at. Teasing him to avoid any real feelings. "Have you made any progress with your elf-maid?" I asked.

To my complete pleasure, he blushed. "I didn't realize that he wasn't a woman," Kili said defensively.

"So I see." We stood in silence before something else dawned on me. Maybe he was just flirting with me because I was the only person available. "Was that all that you wanted? Just a woman?" I asked quietly.

"Oh, no. There's something that I wanted much more than just a woman. No... I know what I want. I just wonder if she feels the same," Kili replied.

We had both been staring down at the water when he had said it. I had been trying to face the reality that Kili might really not like me. Perhaps he had been bored on the quest and had merely settled on teasingly flirting with the one person who was here. But his last words... there was something about them. Something about the slightest strain in his voice. I turned to look at him as he gave me a playful grin. My hands were gently resting on the ledge that protected us from falling in the water and I felt the edge of Kili's hand rest against mine.

Before I got the chance to ask him if it was a dwarf in the Blue Mountains, Kili spoke again. "To be completely honest, it's a little strange being around these many women at once."

As much as I would have liked him to explain who he was interested in, I was never one for the emotional conversations. So, I switched gears. "The elf-maids?" I asked curiously.

"Yes."

"It must have been strange to have me around. A woman constantly in your company."

Kili grinned. "It's been a welcome surprise."

Stop blushing, you moron. He's just teasing you. "Not many women hanging around the Blue Mountains?"

"Very few."

"None of them wanted to come on the journey?" I asked curiously.

Kili shook his head. "There's no way that any of them would have been allowed to come along. They're not fighters, dwarf women. They're closely looked after," Kili explained. I raised a brow. Dwarf women had always seemed to me like they would have been warriors, just like the men. "They would have never been allowed along."

Huh... So, dwarf women were controlled just the way that women used to be controlled in my world. "I always wondered why there were no women who were a part of the company. Dwarf women, anyways," I said.

"There aren't many of them to spare, as a matter of fact," Kili said.

"Oh?"

"Dwarf men outnumber the dwarf women by three to one."

Damn... It was almost a perfect fifty-fifty split between men and women in the old world. "Small pond to catch your fish from," I commented without thinking.

The moment that I realized what I had said, Kili and I turned to stare at each other for a few moments. "Saying from Rohan," we both laughed at the same time.

"Yeah..." I mumbled, giggling.

One of these days I would really have to learn to stop speaking before thinking. "With so few dwarf women around, most men never even marry. Two-thirds of the population find a craft that they love and that becomes their first and foremost priority. Soldiers, blacksmiths, farmers - you name it," Kili explained. I raised a brow again. Most of the dwarves in the company would never even marry simply because there weren't enough women. The thought seemed a little depressing. At least they had their crafts, I supposed.

"Some dwarf women choose not to marry - either they don't want a husband or no one will marry them. It's because dwarf women are so seldom seen that a legend stemmed that dwarves were only born by growing out of stone," Kili continued. I grinned at the amusing idea. That would be comical to see. "But they do exist. Dwarves have always wanted their women to be protected from other races so we usually keep them concealed inside the mountain halls. They seldom travel in the outside world, only in great need, and when they do, they are dressed as men."

His words processed for a long time before I said, "Sounds controlling."

"Why do you think that the dwarves here are so fascinated by you, Leah?" Kili asked. I gave him an even stare. I wasn't sure what he meant by that. "Because a human woman is much different than a dwarf woman."

"I guess I'm so used to being in my own culture that sometimes I forget that your culture is quite different," I admitted.

"They are indeed," Kili agreed.

"But, in all honesty, some of it doesn't sound half-bad. Getting to refuse having a husband?"

"What do you mean?"

"Where I'm from, people are different. There's no one universal rule for marriage. Some people never get married - either because no one wanted them or they didn't want it. Some of them get married when they're older - they want to wait for the right person. Other people get married seemingly every few years after they divorce their previous significant other. Other people get married when they're teenagers, just because. For pregnancies, because their parents forced them into it; there's all sorts of reasons. But love doesn't really seem to be one of them anymore."

Every word was true. I really didn't think that people got married for love anymore. Even my own parents just seemed content with each other. Not in love. Perhaps that was where I had gotten my relationship with Brian. Because I wasn't used to seeing people completely in love with each other. I had never gotten used to it. None of my family, none of my friends, and even strangers on the street just seemed to be there. Not in love, the way that I had always seen in films. The way that I wondered if anyone would ever feel about me.

"Sounds... disingenuous," Kili finally said.

My eyebrow lifted. "That's a good way to put it," I admitted. "I think that's why more than half of all marriages end in divorce."

"What's divorce?" Kili asked.

"You don't know what a divorce is?" I asked, surprised.

"Evidently not."

They loved each other that much in Middle Earth that they never even thought about potentially ending their relationship. It seemed so sweet. "I've never had to explain a divorce to someone before. I guess the best way to put it is that it's the legal dissolution of a marriage. Basically, legally separating from your spouse," I explained as best I could.

"Like you're no longer married to them?" Kili asked.

"Exactly."

He looked horrified. "Why would anyone do that?"

Who knew? That had never been a part of my plan. If I ever married, I never wanted to get divorced. "I don't know. I guess... marriage isn't really a sacred thing where I come from. Not like it seems to be for the dwarves. People do it without really thinking about it. See, in Rohan, there's no real danger. People don't fall in love the way that you do. There is no thinking that I would give my life for this person, because there's no scenario where that would happen in Rohan. So people fall out of love. Does that make sense?" I asked.

Kili nodded. "In its own way, I suppose that it does."

"Things might be more dangerous here, but I like them. Seeing the way that the company interacts with each other. The bond where you would all give your life for the other."

"And any one of us would give our lives for you."

"Save Thorin," I joked.

Kili shook his head, placing his hand over my own. "Don't believe that, Leah. You and Thorin might not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but in his own way, he does care for you. He wouldn't let anything happen to you. If it came down to it, he would trade his life for yours."

No... My one damn mission was to make sure he didn't die. "Well ask him not to do that, all right?"

"I would too," Kili added.

"If you ever try to give your life for mine, I'll bring you back to life just to kill you myself, got it?" I snapped.

"No," Kili said sharply. "And you won't be getting me to budge on that one."

Despite myself, I jumped slightly. I really hadn't been expecting him to get as angry with me as he had. It wasn't really angry either. More defensive. But I wouldn't dare have him let himself die for me. Not just like the way that he had died for Tauriel. If all went as according to plan, Kili wouldn't die at all. He would live and have a happy life in Erebor. I gave a flustered smile at Kili, despite everything. It was the first time that anyone had said something like that to me. But I didn't like the tenseness. I wanted to make things a little less serious between the two of us.

"You know, my grandmother would love you," I said.

"Why is that?" Kili asked.

"Because she loves any boy that I talk to," I said. Kili laughed softly. "She comes from a day when everyone got married. That was about all that women were good for. Getting married, keeping the house, and eventually having kids. She's still kind of in that mindset. Doesn't help that everyone in my family has married young."

"How young?"

"Way too young for me. My grandparents - both sets - married when they were barely legal. Eighteen and nineteen, all of them. My own parents got married when my mom was twenty-two and my dad was twenty-four. Harley's in a relationship and seems to think that it's serious and she's only sixteen."

"And what of you?"

"Of me?" I repeated, flabbergasted.

No way. I really didn't want to have to tell him about my relationship with Brian. "Before you left home... was there anyone?" Kili asked carefully.

There was some part of me that figured that Kili didn't want me to answer. At least, he didn't want to hear me explain that I had been with someone. "Why do I feel like if I answer this honestly, I'm going to get judged?" I said slowly.

"I'll never judge you for anything you did before we met," Kili said, sensing where I was going with everything. But I still felt a little too awkward to tell him. He didn't really realize everything that had happened between Brian and I in the old world. "What you did before you joined the company is your business. You can share that with me or not. It's your choice."

"Okay," I breathed. If he really wanted to know, I would tell him and just hope that he didn't judge me. "Nothing serious."

Kili sensed my hesitation. "Leah, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

But it was time for me to be honest with him. "No, I actually don't mind talking about it. I guess things are different in Rohan. We date because... just because, I guess. It's something to do. You find the person physically attractive, maybe you're lonely, they might make you laugh, or because you want to be physically intimate with someone without the guilt of not being with them. I - uh, I never had anything serious," I said. Kili smiled at me encouragingly. "Just wasn't interested. No one caught my eye."

Kili arched a brow. "So, you've never been with someone?"

"I didn't say that. I'm not a complete loser," I teased.

Kili laughed. "And I never said that."

It was enough to make us both laugh again. "Oh, man. How old was I when I went on my first date?" I asked questioningly. I couldn't even remember. It had been that long. "I think that I was... twelve."

"Twelve?" Kili asked in shock.

"Don't give me that look!" I barked, whacking him on the chest. "We don't live to be three hundred and fifty years old. We're lucky to make it to eighty. We've gotta have fun while we're here."

"Tell me, what do twelve-year-old's do on a... date, is it?"

"Date, yes. Well... I think that my first date was pretty normal. We went to the market and walked around with my parents. We watched a play in the park together, also with my parents."

Technically we had gone to the mall. We had gone one way while my parents had gone the other. We had then gone to a movie and sat in the front row while my parents were a row behind us. "That sounds actually rather nice," Kili said.

"It was nice. But the aftermath, not so much."

"Aftermath?"

"Yeah. We got back to school a few days later and he started telling everyone that we had kissed on the date. When you're only twelve, that's a huge scandal. Damaged my reputation," I said teasingly. Kili laughed softly. It had been the truth. We had never spoken again after that one failed date. "So, I decided to take it out on him by punching him when his friends started laughing at me."

Kili laughed softly, laying his hand over my own again. "Always were tough, huh?"

"A little," I giggled. I'd been suspended for three days for the punch. My parents had taken me out to the movies for it. "If there's one thing that my first very failed date taught me, it was... to guard myself."

Kili's face fell. "Not everyone is like that."

"Oh, I know. But it doesn't change things."

"Was that your only... significant other?" Kili asked carefully.

"Significant other. You make it sound so scandalous," I teased. We both started laughing. They were so shy in Middle Earth. It was both cute and annoying. "No, I had a few others. Some serious. Some not so serious. But no one that I cared enough for to last a lifetime."

"Do you not want to ever marry?" Kili asked carefully.

He wasn't the first person to ask me that question. "I don't know," I said honestly. Kili nodded thoughtfully. "I didn't really think much about what I wanted. I guess I just figured that I would know what I wanted when it came along. I had a long-term boyfriend before I came on the journey."

Why the hell did you say that? Kili's eyes widened. "Did you?"

"Yes," I said bashfully.

"May I ask what his name was?"

"Brian."

Kili stared at me for a moment before asking, "Did you love him?"

I didn't miss the hint of hesitation in his voice. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer or not. "No," I said immediately. Kili stared at me. "I know that sounds bad. Brian was a sweet guy and I used to enjoy our time together. We hung out together all the time when we first started going out. We were dating for about six months before the journey but we'd known each other for years. One night after a few too many drinks we just... got together. I - I mean -"

The last thing that I wanted to do was admit to Kili that I definitely wasn't innocent. "Leah. I'm not judging you. I have no right to judge you of anything that you did before we met. I have no right to judge you even now," Kili said seriously.

So, he didn't care about my past. A warming sensation spread from my fingertips to my toes. He got better by the moment. "Thank you. Afterwards, we didn't really say anything. We just kind of... fell into our routines. He was more of a friend than anything else. But we... you know," I said stupidly, my face burning with embarrassment again. Kili nodded reassuringly. "Like I said, I wasn't really in love with him. He wasn't in love with me either. We didn't really mind it. We were kind of more of a habit. I think I stayed with him for fear of losing his friendship."

"Did you end things with him before coming here?" Kili asked.

Unfortunately, I was plastered drunk when I got sucked here. "Not really. Like a coward, I kind of ran off," I said, mostly because I was thinking about just avoiding Brian forever. "I wish that I hadn't done that. He deserved to know the truth of how I felt. At least, for me to say it out loud. He likely already knew. I'm just hoping that he moves on. He deserves someone to really love him. Not just be comfortable with him."

Kili hummed. "He sounds like a good man."

"He is. I just don't love him," I said, trying to hint that there was no competition for my affections. Just in case... "What about you? Did you leave a girl?"

"No. No one that really caught my fancy."

"What about the elves?"

"Not the elves. Someone has caught my fancy. Just not one of them," Kili said.

For a moment my head shot up from staring at the rushing water. My face was burning with... what was it? Not quite embarrassment. Desire, maybe? I wasn't sure. As my head turned slowly and my own eyes met Kili's I saw that he was staring at me with a look that I had seen a few times before. A half-quirked smile. I blushed madly. There had to be something else that he was smiling at. Perhaps the baffled look on my face. It wasn't at me. He didn't love me. He didn't even like me. No. He never would. I had just been fooling myself earlier.

At the moment, I was desperate to change the subject and lighten the air. "Okay, so tell me. Tell me what 'dating culture' is like with the dwarves. I'm genuinely curious," I said.

"Different than yours," Kili chuckled.

"Tell me," I goaded.

"Well, men are always supposed to approach the woman. It's considered inappropriate for women to make the first move. You meet their family right away. They have to approve. Men are supposed to plan everything. The woman goes along with it. They take charge. We follow her parents' rules. Bear in mind that the woman goes from one man to another in her life. Her father to eventually her husband. And, um..."

His face had gone slightly red and he no longer was looking at me. "No intimacy?" I guessed.

"No intimacy," Kili confirmed.

"And do you agree with that?" I asked carefully.

Did he think that I was repulsive for what I had done? "Not anymore," Kili said pointedly.

A tingle shot through me. Change the subject before you say something really inappropriate. "It seems very sweet that you all are so... reserved. Where I'm from, it's considered old-fashioned. But sometimes the old ways to do things are the best ways. Although it was easier. You didn't have to dance around things. You could just say what you wanted," I explained.

"What would you say?" Kili asked. I arched an eyebrow. "If no one was around to judge you."

"I'd say that..." I trailed off, unsure of what I could say. "I'm dealing with some things that I've never had to deal with before. And I don't know how to handle them. I don't know who I can talk to about the things on my mind."

"You can always talk to me," Kili offered.

"Not about this," I said, grinning bitterly. There was no way to explain to anyone that I knew what would happen. I knew that I was talking to a dead man. "What about you? What would you say with no one to judge you?"

"The same thing. I'm experiencing things that I never thought that I would have to deal with."

"Want to tell me about it?" I offered curiously.

"May I tell you something?"

"Sure."

"It's selfish."

"Things usually are," I pointed out.

"You mean very much to me, Leah Ambrose," Kili said, turning to face me and grabbing my hand. I blushed. Again. "It would be very painful to lose you in the journey right now. Just as painful as it would be to lose any of the others. I would very much like you to stay."

"It might be a little bit selfish on my part too. I have a family waiting for me back home. Friends. A man that I owe answers to. But I don't want to leave."

"Good."

"Being with you all, I like it. The unconditional love that you have for each other. I've never seen that before. I can't even imagine what it would be like."

"Perhaps you'll feel it one day," Kili said slowly.

Might as well give it a chance... "I think I'm starting to," I whispered.

It was the complete truth. I really was starting to feel that unconditional love. Not just from Kili but from the entire company. Or, most of them. Kili and I stared at each other for what could have been hours. I realized that we had somehow come to stand practically pressed against each other. I leaned up on my tiptoes and pressed a small kiss against Kili's cheek. As I pulled away, I saw that he was giving me one of his killer smiles. To my surprise, I felt one of his arms sliding around my lower back, resting on my other hip. Kili's dark eyes were boring into mine.

"Leah -"

"Miss Ambrose," a faint call echoed, cutting off whatever Kili was about to say.

Kili and I didn't pull apart, but I did drop my head down. "Of course," I breathed. I had been so desperate to know what he was going to say. I finally pulled away from Kili and turned back to see one of the elf maidens who had helped me earlier. "Yes?"

"Lord Elrond sent us to ask if you would like some assistance getting ready for bed," the elf maiden offered.

"Umm... Yes, thank you. Give me a moment, will you?" I asked her.

"Yes, ma'am."

The elf maiden gave a gentle bow before turning away. Once she had gone, I turned back to Kili, feeling stupid all over again. "Suppose I'll see you tomorrow," I mumbled.

"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow," Kili said.

"Bye."

Just as I had turned to go find the elf maiden, Kili called me back. "Leah?" I turned back curiously. "I'll miss having you in my bedroll," Kili teased.

"You know where to find me if you get lonely," I shot back.

The two of us grinned at each other as I laughed softly. At least he was better with recovering from these embarrassing moments than I was. In the back of my mind, I really was secretly hoping that he would slip into my bedroom at night. Perhaps something could happen where we wouldn't get interrupted. But I knew that he wouldn't. He was still used to the old-fashioned ways of the dwarves. So, Kili walked up to me and pressed a small kiss almost at the corner of my mouth. I smiled softly as I squeezed his hand and turned away, headed off to bed.


	10. Chapter Ten

Kili's P.O.V.

Just minutes after Leah had left with the elves to return to her bedroom, Kili stood out by the waterfall, watching the water crash in soft waves underneath the bridge. The entire time he was there, he was thinking on Leah's last few words before she had left him, wishing so desperately that he had gotten a few more moments to speak to her. What did she mean by them? He wanted to ask her but he knew that she was gone for the night. He would have to wait until the morning - if he could bring himself to say it then.

In the meantime, he constantly repeated the last few words that she had told him. She had simply never found someone worth her time? It didn't mean that she had never been with someone - she had admitted that she had - but they never meant much to her. He could guess that there were plenty of men who had been attracted to her back in Rohan - something that he would never dare blame them for - but none of them had ever held her attention. He wondered who it would take to capture her attention once and for all.

Kili couldn't help but wonder what Leah had meant when she'd said that she was starting to understand what unconditional love meant. He knew exactly what each of the words meant on their own, but strung together, he couldn't quite make out what she was trying to get at. It made his heart race when he began wondering if there was even the slightest chance that she might have meant him. Could she have? He wasn't sure. He had always been good with reading women. Until she came into his life, that is.

Leah had managed to affect Kili in a way that no woman before her ever had. He was used to having women around. But dwarf women were so different than she was. It didn't help that he also had a deep adoration for her that he had never had for anyone else. It made him wonder... He had never much believed in the idea of potentially having a One. It had all seemed a little silly to him. He couldn't believe in truly loving only one person in his entire life. But now he wondered if it might have been true simply because that seemed to be how much he cared for her.

He continuously wondered if it might have been possible that he really did love her. It seemed that way. He had always liked flirting and talking with women of every race. He had done it all the time when he and Fili had traveled when they were younger. But that had just been a joke. None of them had ever genuinely interested him that much and he knew that the feelings were reciprocated. But Leah... there was something different with her. The two of them slept together every night and spent almost every waking moment together.

There were so many things about her that he absolutely adored. He loved the way that she fought. He had never seen it before. No one had ever fought like that, not anyone that he had ever seen. She was stronger than any woman he had ever met. The way that she fought hand-to-hand, with the bow, and with her sword. Not to mention that she was beginning to get better with knives. She wasn't like anyone else. She might have been the slightest bit strange but it was all part of her charm. After all, he was just the slightest bit strange too. For a dwarf, at least.

Those were only the physical. He loved the way that she made him laugh; those strange personality quirks that he adored. She was easily one of the most comical people he had ever met. She was lovely. He thought so even more with each time that he looked at her. It helped that he was relatively positive that Leah felt the same way about him as he did for her. It was in her eyes and the way that she spoke to him. Plus she always blushed when he teased or complimented her. They seemed to be right together, so what was the next step?

Kili was in the middle of thinking of what to say to her next when Thorin joined him. "Uncle," Kili greeted.

"Kili," Thorin replied, patting his nephew gently on the back. "You look to be in deep thought."

"Suppose I was."

"Have I disturbed something?" Thorin asked curiously.

Kili might have adored Leah, but he wasn't ready for the rest of the company to know it yet. Definitely not his uncle. "Nothing that I want to think about right now. You’re a welcome distraction," Kili said honestly.

His feelings for Leah could be dealt with at a later date. "Yes. Sometimes the mind can lead to much trouble when allowed to wander too far," Thorin said knowledgeably.

"You sound as though you’re speaking from experience," Kili teased.

They both stared at each other before laughing softly. It was perhaps the lightest that either one of them had felt in a while. Kili turned away from the water to face his uncle as Thorin leaned up against the bridge. Both looked content at the moment. Kili was happy to get a chance to talk to his uncle without the rest of the company. It wasn't something that he had gotten much since beginning the journey. Even better was that Kili could now talk to Thorin without the stress of having him glare at Leah. Feeling like he had to pick between the two of them.

"How much do you hate it here?" Kili asked, desperately wishing to stop thinking about Leah.

"A great deal more than you will likely ever know," Thorin said. Kili nodded. Thorin had minded his manners so far but he still seemed quite tense. "Still, the elves are useful enough, allowing us time to rest and regain our strength. Lord Elrond was able to read the map."

"Anything useful?" Kili asked curiously.

"We'll have to be to the Mountain by Durin's Day."

"A difficult task, but not impossible."

"Precisely," Thorin agreed. He turned to his young nephew and smiled proudly. "You will love Erebor."

"Fili and I are thrilled to see it."

Thorin shook his head, pacing around the small bridge. "You should have grown up there. I’m sorry that you’ll have missed that opportunity. But you’ll have plenty of chances to see Erebor in all of its glory soon enough," Thorin said.

"You've done well by us, Thorin. Never think otherwise," Kili replied.

"I hope to always continue doing so," Thorin said.

He might have been a king, but Thorin would always be an uncle who loved his nephews as if they were his own sons. He simply wished that they could have been raised in the same home that their father was. Thorin placed a hand on Kili's shoulder, moving in so that they could place their foreheads together in a small embrace. Kili smiled. It wasn't too often that either one of them was able to show their softer sides - Thorin as a king and Kili as a prince. It was moments like this - the rare ones, few and far between - that meant the world to both of them.

"I saw Miss Ambrose returning to the hall," Thorin said, once they had pulled apart.

"The elves offered to show her to her chambers for the night and assist her for bed," Kili explained.

"Will it be odd?" Thorin asked.

Kili arched a brow, unsure of what he meant. "Uncle?" he asked blankly.

"To not have her near you for the night," Thorin said. Kili's cheeks colored slightly. He didn't like the way that this conversation was going. "I'm old, not blind." They both grinned. "She sleeps in between you and Fili every night and seems quite comfortable. You didn't seem fond of having her away from you for the time being."

Kili swallowed. "Away from the company," he corrected. "Besides, Uncle, I grew up on your stories of the elves."

"Of course," Thorin said doubtfully. "But you have grown close to her?"

Did he not believe Kili when he said that he simply hadn't wanted Leah to be with the elves and away from the rest of the company? Probably not. Kili might have been a little silly, but he was no fool, after all. He scented the danger of the conversation with Thorin. He knew that he would have to watch his step wisely. He had been fearing this eventual conversation with Thorin since not long after they had begun the journey. The one where his uncle finally confronted him on the feelings that everyone knew he had for Leah.

"Yes," Kili finally answered honestly. Thorin merely stared at his nephew. "Just as Fili and Ori have. Not to mention Bofur and Bilbo. We're some of the younger members of the company. It only makes sense that we would get along. Bofur finds her sense of humor funny and I think that Leah is calm enough to keep Bilbo in the right state of mind."

Thorin nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, she's managed to enchant most of the company."

"But not you," Kili said slowly.

There was something cold in Thorin's voice. "I see the certain fascination that you hold with her, but, no, I do not feel it myself."

For a few moments, the two of them stood in silence. Kili wasn't quite sure where to go from here. He knew that this conversation was leading somewhere, but he wasn't so sure that he wanted to know where that was. He knew that he could only put it off for so long. Having known Thorin for his entire life, he knew that it was better to just get it over with sooner rather than later. So, he decided to go for it.

"I sense that there is something else that you would like to say," Kili mumbled.

"There is," Thorin said, turning around. "Although I doubt that you will want to hear it."

An unnerved feeling sank into Kili. "Go on."

Thorin very slowly approached Kili, as if approaching an animal at bay. "Kili... If there is anything that I've taught you is important in our lives, what is it?"

"Loyalty," Kili answered immediately.

"Precisely. Kili... I hate to bring this up, I honestly do. But as I've watched you and Miss Ambrose grow closer over the weeks and months, I feel that it's finally time to say something," Thorin said softly. Kili immediately felt sick. Why was she being brought into the conversation? "Our race is so small already. We're outnumbered exponentially by both mortal men and elves. The dwarfish race has always been low in numbers but strong in heart. The number of female dwarves is even lower."

"I know. It's the exact reason that less than a third of our kind marry. Most find their crafts and spend their lives dedicated to that," Kili said automatically.

"Yes, unless they are a part of a ruling family," Thorin replied.

"Do you have a son we don't know about?" Kili teased.

It was the perfect moment to try and lighten the mood. They both smiled. "When you and your brother were born and your father died, I knew instantly that you two would need a fatherly figure in your life. I've tried to be both that and a king to you," Thorin said, bringing the conversation back around to its original serious tone.

Kili let out a soft breath and placed a hand on his uncle's shoulder. "You've done well, Uncle. Truly, you have."

"Thank you, Kili," Thorin replied, placing his hand over his nephew's. "Unfortunately sometimes I must be the bearer of bad news."

Kili pulled away. "Bad news?"

"The number of dwarves continue to dwindle."

"We've always been the smallest race in numbers. But we're strong in heart."

"That's true. But it doesn't count for everything," Thorin said.

"Where are you going with this, Uncle?" Kili asked, utterly confused by the conversation.

"You and Miss Ambrose are quite close," Thorin repeated from his earlier comment.

The conversation seemed to keep coming around to Leah. But what did she have to do with what Thorin wanted to talk about? "Yes. She's been lovely to have around," Kili answered.

"I've seen how close the two of you are. You've never slept with other friends," Thorin pointed out.

Kili would have loved to see the look on his uncle's face if he'd found him, in his bedroom back in the Blue Mountains, sleeping with one of his female friends. Of course, he didn't have that many. There simply weren't that many women in the Blue Mountains. He was friendly with them but felt no real connection. He had visited female friends of the other races, but he simply didn't know them that well. He had spent most of his life surrounded by women. It was refreshing to have a constant companion - a woman, this time.

Kili felt suddenly defensive. "Uncle -"

"You're a young man, Kili. I've seen this coming for a long time," Thorin interrupted calmly. "I've always hoped that both you and Fili could find someone to share your lives with."

Kili's face burned. "We haven't known each other for that long," he muttered.

"Exactly. Yet look at how close the two of you are," Thorin pointed out.

So, that was where this conversation was going. Thorin was going to test just how far Kili's feelings for Leah were. It wasn't easy, considering he himself didn't even know. "We're similar. Both very young for our comparative races. Both archers. Both fun-loving and mischievous in our own ways. We get along very well. We have a good time together," Kili tried to explain calmly.

"That's what concerns me," Thorin said seriously.

"Concerns?" Kili repeated.

"Be honest, Kili. What do you feel about her?" Thorin asked.

How could Kili be honest with Thorin about the way he felt about her when he wasn't even sure what he felt about her. "She... she means very much to me," Kili stumbled over his words, saying the only thing he was sure about.

"You seem to be growing closer to her with each passing day," Thorin said, echoing his previous thoughts.

"You don't approve," Kili said.

He knew that his uncle didn't approve of his budding relationship with Leah. "You seem very happy with her. It's something that I've always wanted for you. For both you and Fili. But I had always hoped that you would find yourselves respectable dwarf woman," Thorin said.

"You don't find her respectable?"

Thorin thought on his answer for a long time before saying, "I find her to be respectable in her own way. I'm sure that she makes for a wonderful human maid. But she is not a dwarf. She does not know our language or customs. Nor does she seem to care for them."

"They're not hers," Kili pointed out. "And she's willing to learn Khuzdul."

"She is an outsider."

"Does that mean that she can never find a way in?"

Leah wanted to learn their customs. She thought that they were fascinating. He wanted to teach her but feared Thorin finding out. "The dwarves have always been a secretive race. That includes our languages and customs," Thorin explained. "I have so far allowed the two of you to spend much time together. You spend all day together. As I said before, there is very little time that the two of you do not spend together."

Kili stared at Thorin blankly. What did he mean? "You can't be asking me to spend less time with her?" he asked.

"I care not how much time the two of you spend together. What I do care about is the kind of time that you spend together."

"I'm not following, Uncle."

In reality, he was. But he needed Thorin to say it first. "We all know just how deeply you care for Miss Ambrose. It's no secret that you've developed romantic feelings for her. Correct?" Thorin asked bluntly.

That was one way to get to the point. Kili wasn't completely sure just how deeply his feelings for Leah ran. He didn't know what, exactly, his feelings for her were. But he did know one thing. He genuinely cared about her and his feelings for her were far more than friendly. There was something else there. It was romantic - there was no doubt about that. The question was just about how deeply his feelings for her ran. He knew.... yes... he knew. Now it came down to admitting it. Kili thought about lying to Thorin for a little while before deciding against it.

"Yes," Kili answered simply.

Thorin hummed thoughtfully, pacing in front of Kili. Every time that he risked looking into his uncle's face, Kili was unable to read his expression. "Do you think that she could be your One?" Thorin finally asked.

"I - I don't - I never thought about it," Kili stuttered.

"Yes. I always thought it a rather foolish concept," Thorin answered.

The idea of having a One had always seemed a little silly to Kili. He had always liked the idea of falling in love with one person with whom no one could ever compete. But it had always seemed impossible. But now he was wondering if it was possible that it might have been true. Was it at possible that Leah might have been Kili's One? He was starting to think that she might be. He never enjoyed being away from her and he so desperately enjoyed each moment that they had together. And, for not knowing each other that long, he cared so desperately for her.

Kili was sick of guessing with Thorin. "Why don't you say what it is that you want to say," Kili finally told Thorin.

"Kili, I focused my entire life on taking care of the dwarves in the Blue Mountains after the fall of Erebor. Once things got better for us there, I turned my focus to reclaim Erebor. I never took the time to think of settling down; finding a wife or having children. Having any heirs. You and Fili have always been the heirs to the throne. It has always been vital that, at some point or another, the two of you marry. Fili being the eldest, I've always kept a close eye on the company that he kept. With you being the younger - less likely to ascend to the throne - I've given more leeway in who you keep company with.

"But I've noticed lately that you have grown closer and closer to Miss Ambrose and that worries me. It worries me how close the two of you are growing. You just admitted that you do have romantic feelings for her. Which, normally, I would be quite excited about. It's good to see you becoming a young man. Kili... I do believe that Miss Ambrose is a good woman who will make someone - a very patient man - a good wife. But she is a human woman. Not a dwarf. Not suitable to be with a crown prince of an ancient dwarfish realm."

Thorin's speech was well thought out. Kili was sure that he must have spent a long time thinking about what he wanted to say once the two of them got the chance to have this conversation. But he so desperately wished that Thorin had said something to him long before now. Kili knew that, in the back of his mind, he wanted Leah. He wanted to be with her at every moment of every day. He genuinely cared for her and adored her more than he ever had with anyone else. There was something there. Romantic feelings. He knew it.

It seemed that it didn't matter. Thorin's words had brought down any hope that Kili might have had that he could be with Leah when the quest was over and they had reclaimed Erebor. According to Thorin, Leah would never be able to live in the dwarf stronghold. She could never learn Khuzdul. She wasn't suitable to be on a throne or even remotely related to it - which was exactly what would happen if the two of them were together. Kili knew what Thorin was hinting at, but he didn't want to admit it to himself in his head, nevertheless out loud.

But it was time. Kili knew that it was time to get what had to be said out in the open. "You're asking me to sacrifice what it is that I feel for her to be with a dwarf woman suitable for the throne?" Kili asked quietly, desperately hoping that he might have been wrong.

"I'm asking you to remember your duties," Thorin replied.

It was his way of saying yes. "And what of my heart?" Kili asked.

Thorin let out a soft breath. "We must all make sacrifices." This might have been a sacrifice that he wasn't willing to make. "Kili... I know that you've always been different. It's one of the things I've always admired about you. But this is where the line must be drawn. Erebor is a dwarfish kingdom. It's not meant for mortal men," Thorin said tonelessly.

"Uncle... I..." Kili trailed off.

"This isn't easy for either one of us. I've debated not saying anything," Thorin explained. Kili desperately wished that he hadn't said anything. "But I don't want to see the two of you grow closer only to say something when it is too late."

"It's already too late," Kili responded.

Thorin stared at his nephew sadly. For a brief moment, he wished that he had said nothing. He wanted his nephew to be happy. But he couldn't be with Leah Ambrose. They simply weren't a good fit. Kili shifted, wandering back and forth over the bridge. What the hell could he say to Thorin to convince him that Leah was a good fit for him? He knew just one thing right now. He knew that he wanted to be with her and he knew that his feelings for her weren't going away. She was in his heart for good.

"You're young, Kili," Thorin said.

But if she was his One, it wouldn't matter. His heart would always belong to her. "Not too young to know how I feel," Kili responded.

"What of Miss Ambrose? Do you know how she feels?" Thorin asked.

Kili hesitated. "No. Not truly."

Thorin let out a deep breath before walking back up to his nephew, placing his hand on his shoulder. Kili almost immediately pulled away. "I genuinely am sorry to have to ask this of you."

"Are my feelings for her not enough?"

It simply wasn't fair for Thorin to ask Kili to stay away from Leah and to ignore his feelings. "Perhaps I have underestimated how strong your feelings for her are," Thorin admitted quietly. "We have always been a secretive race. We don't share information or the ways of our lives with outsiders. Miss Ambrose has already learned far more than we have ever intended to share. I meant what I said, Kili. You are young. You can find someone else."

"If there's no one else? If she is my One?"

"Let me put things in another way, Kili. Be honest with yourself. Miss Ambrose has perhaps another sixty or seventy years left. Her body will begin to fade away long before that," Thorin said. Kili's stomach jolted. "At that point, you will barely have scratched your adult life. You will watch her die and live with it for the rest of your own lifetime."

Kili thought on Thorin's words for a long time. Leah was a mortal woman. She would live to be perhaps eighty or ninety years old. If she was lucky, she might scratch one hundred. She was already at least a fifth of the way through her life. She only had a few decades left. Thorin was right that Kili would live much longer than Leah would. He was already seventy-six. When Leah was seventy-six, she would be nearly dead. Kili would likely live to be Kili would likely live about another two hundred years. He would live well over one hundred years without her.

Most of the middle and end of his life would be spent without her. He would have to live alone and deal with her loss. Even just from natural causes, Kili knew that it would kill him to have to watch her die. That was when he knew that Thorin was right. But even more so, Kili had always been one of the crown princes of Erebor. It meant that he would be expected to live like one. Meaning that he would have to find a wife who could be worthy to potentially hold the crown in the instance that something happened to Fili.

Kili swallowed harshly. "You are right about one thing. I was a crown prince long before I ever met Leah," Kili admitted tonelessly. Thorin stared at him, unsure of where this was going. "I'll do what needs to be done."

"Thank -"

"Don't thank me for what I'm about to do," Kili snapped nastily. He loved his uncle, but he wasn't okay with what was about to happen. He couldn't believe that he was about to do this. "Break not only her heart but mine, too." Thorin shifted nervously. "The only reason that I'm doing this is that I did swear an oath to protect this race."

"I'm very sorry to have to do this," Thorin said, actually looking quite regretful.

"Not as sorry as I am," Kili responded numbly. "I need to think for a while."

"Of course," Thorin responded.

Thorin walked off to give Kili some time to think. It looked like he was debating on laying a hand on his nephew's shoulder but ultimately decided against it. It was the right decision. Kili didn't want anyone to be near him right now. He wanted to be alone. He wanted to take some time to think about what the next step was. As Thorin walked off, leaving Kili alone and quite frustrated, Kili dropped back against the railing of the bridge. He drove his palms into his eyes. He knew that Thorin was right, but that didn't make things easier.

There was one question that continued flitting through his mind. What the hell was he going to tell Leah? How was he going to break the news to her? Not only would he be revealing his feelings for her but he would also then have to tell her that they didn't matter - he couldn't be with her. He only knew one thing for sure. Having to tell her was going to be impossible. The moment that he did, he knew that there was a good chance that she would never speak to him again afterward - something that broke his heart.

Leah's P.O.V.

When I managed to wake up in the morning, I glanced up to see the sun streaming in through the windows. Everything seemed so much prettier in Rivendell than it did anywhere else that I had ever been. I could see why Bilbo had wanted to come here and why he would eventually come back. There was a peacefulness in the air. I shifted around in the silk sheets for a little while, feeling more comfortable than I had in weeks. I was clean, well-fed, and was in an actual bed. Not to mention the absence of snoring dwarves. The one night of peace had been perfect.

About five minutes after I had woken up, there was a knock at the door. "Leah?" Elladan's voice floated in. "Are you decent?"

"What?" I asked dumbly. "Uh... yeah. I guess."

The lock engaged as I sat up in the bed and smiled at the still-closed door. A moment later it moved open as Elladan entered the room, shutting the door behind him. His eyes scanned the room for a moment before finally landing on the bed and spotting me. His eyes immediately dropped down to my clothing. The elves had helped me change into a pale beige nightgown after I had left Kili last night. It was thin and dipped down low in the front but it trailed down to my feet. At the moment I had my feet tucked up against my chest with the blankets on my legs.

Elladan stumbled back towards the door, immediately averting his eyes. "What's wrong?" I asked worriedly, sitting up.

"I asked if you were decent!" Elladan gasped. "And -"

"I'm wearing a nightgown, it's not like I'm naked," I argued, rolling my eyes.

Elladan turned his back to me. "Please. Cover up."

"Okay... Do you have a robe?"

Elladan walked over to my desk and grabbed a floor-length silk robe. He came back to the edge of the bed and handed it to me, still trying not to look my way. "Here you are," he said.

"Thanks."

Elladan wouldn't even turn around to hand me the robe. There was seriously something wrong with how uncomfortable they all were with the bodies of the opposite gender. Not even just the elves. The dwarves and hobbits seemed to be the same. I stood from the bed and slid the robe over my shoulders, giggling the entire time about the way that Elladan had reacted to seeing me. They really were all such babies. As I tied the knot in front of the robe I glanced down at it. The material was a little thin but it would keep everything crucial covered.

"Better?" I asked.

Elladan turned back to me and smiled. "Much."

The two of us stared at each other for a moment before I said, "Was there something you came here for?"

"To tell you that breakfast will be served shortly. And also to tell you that Lord Elrond would like to meet with you sometime this afternoon, perhaps after lunch is served," Elladan explained.

"Oh, that's good. Thanks," I said happily.

"My pleasure. Would you care for me to wait outside while you prepare? I will escort you to breakfast."

"Sure. You can stay here if you want," I teased. I did it more to get a reaction than an actual offer and I was quite pleased with the reaction I got. Elladan stumbled back and began stammering over his words. I started laughing. "Sorry, I just wanted to see what your reaction would be. You didn't disappoint. Wait outside. I'll be ready in a few minutes."

Elladan swallowed a lump in his throat. "Of course, Leah."

The elves were prudes, the dwarves were prudes... that part of Middle Earth wasn't that fun. I did miss being back home and being able to do whatever I wanted with whoever I wanted. As the doors closed and Elladan walked out, I turned to get changed. The clothes that I had managed to bring with me to Rivendell had all been washed in the night and folded on top of my dresser. I smiled at the elves' hospitality and grabbed a few things to wear - much more casual than last night - but was still thrilled to have something clean.

There was no need for me to dress up today anyway. I assumed that most of the day was going to be spent just regaining our strength. So, I put on some of my more casual clothes, forgoing any of my corsets or chest plates. I knew that we would just be wandering around. There didn't seem to be any danger in Rivendell. I changed into a blue tunic and dark brown pants with a pair of black boots. I kept my hair flowing down around my shoulders and didn't bother putting on any of the shine makeup that I had had on last night. There was no point.

Perhaps if we had a nicer dinner later tonight I would put some on. Or maybe if I wanted to impress Kili... I finished getting ready, brushing my teeth and washing off slightly, before heading out into the hallway. As promised, Elladan was waiting for me by the door. He looked very happy to see that I was fully dressed now. I smiled and wrung my hands together, realizing as I glanced down that my wrists were now looking much better. They would probably leave a little bit of a scar, but nothing more. They wouldn't get infected.

"Hey! The injuries are gone!" I said happily.

"That's good to hear," Elladan said, smiling slightly.

"Can you tell the women who helped me that I said thank you?"

"Of course."

The two of us walked in silence for a moment before I said, "Do you know what your father wants to talk about?"

Had Gandalf brought up my appearance here? "He did mention that he had already discussed it with you. He simply would like to discuss your arrival in Rivendell and where you are planning to go from here," Elladan said.

"Okay. Will you be there?" I asked.

"I believe my father would like it to be only the two of you and Mithrandir," Elladan said.

"That sounds about right," I mumbled dumbly.

The two of them were the only ones that I assumed would know about my situation here. Elladan smiled at me as the two of us walked into the breakfast hall. It was already seemingly the middle of the morning, so I was unsurprised to see that the rest of the dwarves were all awake and sitting there. They looked a little bit tired but all gave me grins and said their 'good morning's' as I walked in. But there was one person who was missing from the table. Kili. I walked over to the table and took my usual spot next to Fili.

"Good morning," Fili greeted.

"Morning," I replied, feeling a little strange that Kili wasn't on my other side. Instead, Bofur had taken his spot. I glanced down at the table and smiled. "Look at that! Jam and butter and toast! Things that you all actually eat."

Fili grinned happily. "Breakfast for every meal then."

I smiled back. "Where is your brother?"

Fili's brows furrowed curiously. "I was wondering the same thing. When I woke this morning, Kili was already gone," Fili explained. Where the hell had he gotten off to? "I thought that he might have been with you."

"No, I haven't seen him," I said.

"Uncle," Fili called down the table to Thorin. He glanced up from his breakfast. "Do you know where Kili is?"

"He was out on the bridges earlier. I believe he has gone on a walk to clear his head," Thorin answered shortly.

My eyebrows arched. He had been on the bridges all night. Had he slept out there? Thorin seemed oddly tense about wherever Kili had gotten off to. "When has Kili ever needed to clear his head? Isn't it clear enough?" I teased.

Fili grinned. "Missing him?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you on about?"

"Nothing."

"Why is it that I don't trust you?"

"Don't be cruel, Leah. You know that you can trust me."

"Trust you to put worms in my bedroll while I'm not paying attention," I huffed.

Fili stared at me for a moment before laughing. "That's a good idea. I'll have to use that one," Fili said happily.

"Use it on Ori, huh?" I shot back.

Ori's head shot up. "What?"

"Nothing!" Fili shouted with me.

The rest of the dwarves had all heard what we were talking about. They began laughing at our jokes. As much as I wanted to mess with someone, I didn't want someone to harass Ori. He was adorable. I went back to my breakfast and started chatting with the rest of the company. Everyone laughed and ate - much quieter than they had been last night - for about an hour. The elves were hanging around but they weren't playing their music or serving us quite as much as they had been the night before.

It was fine by me. It was nice to have a quieter breakfast after spending so much time around the rowdy dwarves. The time slowly ticked by as our large group laughed and talked, enjoying the peaceful air that we had while we were in Rivendell. I really did enjoy the company most of the time. They all had their own personalities but each one seemed to like me in their own way. These days it was only every now and again that I got the feeling they didn't like me. It was becoming a rare occasion.

But there was one thing that was bothering me the entire time that we were sitting together. I didn't once see Kili throughout breakfast. He didn't even make a move to return to the dining hall. He didn't appear even when we all got ready to head off to explore Rivendell. He had even mentioned to me that he'd wanted to explore Rivendell. Where was he? I debated on going with them to explore but I ultimately changed my mind and decided to see if I could find Lord Elrond early. Or perhaps Kili. Whoever came first, I supposed.

As I wandered through the halls of Rivendell - likely managing to get myself very lost - I desperately hoped that I would manage to run into Kili. I really did want to talk to him after the conversation that we had gotten ourselves into last night. There was something very tense about the conversation that we had had. Mostly my own fault. Because I had said something that I might have regretted slightly. Had I accidentally scared him off by referencing our still-unspoken flirtation? I had definitely taken a risk. Had it paid off?

The only thing I knew was that I had to speak to him. If nothing else, to apologize for what I had said last night. Perhaps I really had taken things too far. They were very old-fashioned here. Maybe I would just have to wait the entire thing out. Much to my surprise, I eventually wandered out into the gardens and found Kili almost immediately. He was standing off on the bridge that we were on last night. If it weren't for the different clothes that he was wearing, I would have thought that he hadn't moved at all.

"Kili!" I chirped happily, coming to stand next to him. He turned towards me and gave a very tight-lipped smile. "There you are. We've been looking for you all morning."

"You found me," Kili replied.

"Suppose I did. Where have you been?"

"Just walking around. Seeing all of the sights in Rivendell."

"Awful lonely way to go about it," I teased.

Kili gave another smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. What was his problem? "Leah -"

"Miss Ambrose?" a voice suddenly interrupted. I rolled my eyes and turned back to find Lord Elrond and Gandalf standing at the top of the stairs. Naturally... "Would you mind coming with us?"

But I had just found Kili... "Oh..." I muttered awkwardly. "I -"

"Go on," Kili interrupted, motioning to the other two. "We'll talk later."

"O - Okay," I stammered.

What the hell was he doing? Why did he seem like he didn't even want to talk to me now? I supposed that it wasn't the time to ask questions. I could talk to him later. There was something more important that I had to do right now. I walked off with Lord Elrond and Gandalf, thinking and wondering about why Kili was acting the way that he was. He had vanished all morning and now it seemed like he didn't even want to be near me. Was there a chance that I had managed to scare him off with what I had told him last night?

Damn me... I let out a soft breath as I strolled through the gardens towards the same hall that we had read the map in last night. It was different during the day but looked just as beautiful. The spray from the waterfall misted across my face and I closed my eyes. It was lovely. This entire place was. I smiled as I turned back to Lord Elrond and Gandalf. That was when I realized that it wasn't just the three of us. There was one other person there. A beautiful woman in a white dress turned to face me, almost as if she was gliding on a pedestal.

"Oh!" I gasped, fascinated by the sight of her. "You're Lady Galadriel."

"Yes, I am," Lady Galadriel said, her voice deep and soothing. "And you are Miss Leah Ambrose."

"Just Leah, please."

"Mithrandir tells us a strange tale of how you wound up among the company of dwarves," Lord Elrond said.

I glanced back and forth between the three of them. "So... you all know the truth?" I asked slowly.

"They all know," Gandalf confirmed.

"Do you know why I was brought here?" I asked Lady Galadriel and Lord Elrond.

The two of them exchanged a look. "It is uncommon. Unheard of, practically," Lady Galadriel explained. I nodded for her to continue. "The Valar seem to have chosen you for a special quest. One that, if completed, could change the history of Middle Earth."

All I had wanted was to pass my finals... "Why me? There are so many people back on Earth - my Earth - that could have done better. An Olympic archer or a track star or a Marine - you know, someone in the military. I know none of that probably made any sense to you," I said, realizing that they all looked quite confused by my words. "But... I'm just some standard college student. This is way beyond anything I can do."

"You have made it this far in your quest," Lord Elrond pointed out.

"Because I know what's going to happen," I shot back.

"A gift in itself," Lady Galadriel added.

But I couldn't stop everything that was going to happen. "You don't know why I was brought here?" I asked them again.

Lady Galadriel shook her head regretfully. "We only know so much about the future of Middle Earth. But we do know that something happens on this quest that changes the course of Middle Earth's history for the worse," she said. I could only assume that she meant Bilbo finding the One Ring in Goblin Town. Or whatever the hell it was called. "We believe that you were sent to Middle Earth to change that."

"Do you know what it is?" I asked.

"That is for you to know," Lord Elrond said.

Of course... Why would I get a mentor who was actually helpful? When did any hero ever get a mentor who was ever helpful? "When will I know?" I asked.

"You will know," Lord Elrond said.

"That's not helpful," I snapped.

They couldn't even give me the slightest hint of what I was supposed to do! "You were never meant to live in your home realm. You were there to prepare for the life that you were always meant to have in Middle Earth," Lady Galadriel said.

What good were calculus and physics in Middle Earth? "Why was I put with the dwarves? I'm a human," I said curiously.

"That doesn't mean that you weren't meant to be with them," Lord Elrond said.

"If I was always supposed to be here in Middle Earth, why was I ever born in my realm?" I asked.

I had so many questions and barely any answers. "Something happened there that the Valar knew would shape you into the woman that you needed to be in Middle Earth," Lady Galadriel reasoned.

Staying up until three in the morning studying? Sleeping with my best friend? Barely speaking to my family? That was when it hit me. "Robbie..." I gasped softly.

It had to be connected. I wasn't sure, but it was. I was sure of it. "Pardon us?" Lord Elrond asked.

It had to be him. "Robbie," I repeated numbly. "His name is Robert. He was my little brother and he died when I was just a child. We were playing and... it doesn't really matter how he died." My throat began to close at the memory of his death and I swallowed harshly. "But Robbie's death was the one thing that really shaped me growing up."

Lord Elrond, Gandalf, and Lady Galadriel exchanged a look. Had Robbie really died for something more than a silly accident? That would have actually made me feel better. "Perhaps his death will serve for a greater purpose," Lord Elrond said.

It definitely made me feel better. That had always been one of the things that had hurt me the most. It felt like Robbie had just died because of some damned accident. Nothing more. A young life cut far too short. But I always knew that he had been destined for more. That would give me much better closure over his death. To know that his death, somehow, some way, would serve a greater purpose in my life, would at least make me feel the slightest bit better. Maybe he was watching over me, praying that I would take the mission, realizing that it was what he wanted me to do.

But then something dawned on me. One of the thoughts that had been plaguing me since starting the journey. "What if I don't succeed in my mission?" I asked quietly.

"We have faith that you will," Gandalf said hopefully.

I had always been a worst-case-scenario kind of person. "Humor me," I said.

"Then we will face whatever challenge may await us in the future," Lord Elrond said.

At least I knew that if the War of the One Ring still took place, they would win. "If I succeed?" I asked.

"We will be forever grateful," Lord Elrond said.

Either way, it seemed like things would be okay for me in the end. Now I just had to wonder about what happened next. "What happens when this is all over?" I asked curiously.

Would I stay here or would I return to my own world? Having to explain to Brian, my parents, my friends, and Harley why I was so strange. For just a brief moment, I desperately wanted to stay here. "That will be a choice that you will have to make. The Valar do not force choices. You may return to the realm you grew up in. Or you can embrace your destiny in Middle Earth," Lord Elrond explained.

For a long time, we were all silent. Finally, a thought occurred to me. "If I die here... what happens?" I asked softly.

Everything was pointing me to stay here. But there was one thing holding me back. Lord Elrond exchanged a look with Gandalf and Lady Galadriel and said, "Your body and very soul are here in Middle Earth. If you die here, you will have died in your home realm."

That was my answer. If I died here, there were no second chances. I knew that it would be almost impossible to save Thorin, Fili, and Kili in the Battle of the Five Armies without walking into harm's way myself. At least now I knew. If something happened to me, I didn't just get to go back to my old life like this had been some realistic dream. If I died here, things were over for me. I would really be dead. My skin crawled as I gnawed on the edge of my thumbnail. I was absolutely terrified at the thought of potentially dying when I was still so young.

The others must have noticed it, too. "Do you want to go home, Miss Ambrose?" Lord Elrond asked.

Did I want to go home? I had no idea what I wanted. I stood in the center of the hall and stared at the three of them for a few minutes. They didn't rush my choices. They merely watched me think. What did I want? I certainly didn't want to leave the dwarves. I had found a family with them. But I also didn't want to die and that wasn't something that was so easily controlled. I couldn't help thinking that, if I left now, I would be missing something huge in my life. I would always feel like I had missed out on something huge. So, did I really want to go home?

"No," I finally answered.

Gandalf, Lady Galadriel, and Lord Elrond exchanged a pleased look. I swallowed thickly. "You have made the right choice," Lady Galadriel told me.

Had I? What if I really died? I merely nodded. "Leah... Is there anything else that you would like to say?" Gandalf asked.

There were about three hundred things I wanted to say. But none of them were going to make things better. "You have all given me a lot to think about. Thank you for everything," I told the others. They all smiled back at me. I can do this, damn it. I'm not letting them and die and I'm not getting killed. "And... thank you for believing that I can do this. I hope that I can do whatever it is that you need of me."

"We hope that you can, as well," Lord Elrond said.

Bile rose in my throat. What the hell was I supposed to do? There were about a thousand things that I would have to stop in order to prevent the War of the One Ring. Wasn't Sauron already on the rise, anyway? I couldn't stop that. But wasn't I going to have to fall down into Gollum's lair with Bilbo when we were in Goblin Town? I would have to make sure that Bilbo didn't take the One Ring. I sighed and tilted my head back. This thing was getting more and more complicated by the day.

Much to my surprise, Lady Galadriel said, "Might I ask you to join me on a walk?"

I was a little nervous to be alone with her, but I wanted to know what she wanted to tell me. "Of course," I said.

Giving Gandalf and Lord Elrond a quick thank you, I turned and walked out of the hall with Lady Galadriel. We headed out through the hallway and wandered outside. A few minutes passed as we walked together and I said nothing. I didn't really know what to say. After all, my mind was somewhere else. I was still wondering where Kili was and what was wrong with him. When I had seen him earlier, I had noticed that he had seemed a little sick and nervous. Which was annoying. I had always wanted to meet Lady Galadriel but now I was thinking too damn much about Kili.

"Who is he?" Lady Galadriel asked quietly.

My head whipped over to her. "What?" I asked dumbly.

"The man who occupies your thoughts," Lady Galadriel clarified.

Maybe I was a little more obvious than I thought I was. "Don't tell me that you read minds, too?" I teased.

If Lady Galadriel knew, there was a good chance that everyone else knew. She smiled down at me. "Not at all. I simply know the look of a woman in love, even when she, herself, might not know it yet."

A furious blush filled my face. "His name is Kili," I mumbled.

"The dark-haired archer," Lady Galadriel said thoughtfully.

I arched a brow. Did she know him? "That's him. Is it that obvious?" I asked.

Was I really in love with him? It was so embarrassing. If she knew, was there a chance that everyone else did, too? "It is the look that I have seen on many young women," Lady Galadriel said.

"He's just my friend," I said quickly. Lady Galadriel gave me a knowing smile. I blushed, realizing that she knew the truth. "I mean - I don't know if he likes me, too. I doubt it."

"The way that he looks at you is the same way that my husband looks at me."

Was she married? I didn't remember that from the movies or the books. But it didn't matter. Apparently, she was married and not in love with Gandalf. There went that idea that I'd always had in my head. It didn't matter. Right now, what mattered was my relationship with Kili. Did he look at me like that? Perhaps... But we weren't meant to be together. In a matter of months, he would meet Tauriel and there was a good chance that he would fall in love with her. Not to mention the tiny fact that he was supposed to die in a little under a year.

"Lady Galadriel... it's not a good match," I mumbled.

"Says who?"

"The future."

Lady Galadriel gave me a slight smile. "The interesting thing about the future is that it is never set in stone. You have every opportunity to change your future or make a new one," she told me. I smiled at her bashfully. Maybe he wouldn't fall in love with Tauriel and maybe I could keep him from dying in the Battle of the Five Armies. "Who says that this match will not work?"

We both smiled. "Thank you," I said quietly.

"There is something I would like you to have."

"Okay."

Lady Galadriel reached behind her and brought an old leather-bound book seemingly from out of midair. I took it from her, my eyes never leaving hers. "Grimoires," Lady Galadriel said.

"What is this?" I asked dumbly.

"It is a book of ancient magic. I do feel that you will find it helpful," Lady Galadriel explained.

"But I don't possess magic," I said quietly.

"Who said that?" she asked, her lips quirking upwards.

"Well... I did," I said stupidly.

Could people randomly obtain magical abilities in Middle Earth? That could be cool. "You may be capable of much more than you believe, Leah Ambrose. You are more than a warrior sent to protect the dwarves and you are more than the simple girl who felt so out of place in her old world," Lady Galadriel explained hopefully.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked. She nodded. "Do you really believe that I can do this?"

Lady Galadriel let out a soft breath before saying, "I believe that you are here for a reason. Perhaps you will succeed in the mission that the Valar have sent you here for. Or perhaps you will succeed in finding something else."

"What does that mean?" I asked curiously.

"You will know when that moment comes."

Another somewhat useless mentor... At least I got a cool book of magic though. "Thank you for the gift, Lady Galadriel," I said honestly.

"My pleasure, Miss Ambrose. Best of luck on your journey."

"Thank you."

The two of us smiled at each other as Lady Galadriel came closer and gave me a tight embrace. Some part of me wished that we could hang around a little longer - and perhaps we would. Maybe I would get to see her again before the end of our time in Rivendell. After saying goodbye, I walked off and returned to exploring Rivendell as I had been doing earlier. The entire time, I really hoped that I would run into Kili. After almost an hour I spotted him very briefly, but when I called his name he kept walking. Had he not heard me? I tried to catch up with him but he vanished around a corner.

Tracking him down was useless. He was already long gone by the time that I got to where he had been before. I let out a soft breath and tried to catch up to where he had been before. I never managed it. By the time lunch came around I was back in the dining hall. Unsurprisingly, Kili still wasn't there. I asked the others in the company where he was, but none of them knew. Everyone seemed a bit concerned for him at this point. I noted that Thorin was the one dwarf to avoid my gaze and questions throughout the meal.

In the early afternoon, I ended up spending a lot of time goofing around with the other dwarves. It seemed that Thorin was the only dwarf who didn't want to join in the festivities. I ended up trying to sword fight with Dwalin. He still scared me every time that he swung out with his sword toward my head. Fili had me throw knives with him. I was getting better. Bifur and Gloin enjoyed watching me wrestle. At least, I assumed Bifur did, since he wanted to fight a few times. As usual, I danced around and sang with Bofur. Kili still never showed up.

Later on in the day I headed back to my room and read through the book that Lady Galadriel had given me. Most of it made no sense to me. It seemed like I would have to already have some magic to try and do anything. Practicing in my bedroom just made me feel stupid. Eventually, I settled on going to Gandalf and asking him if he could help me learn. If it was even possible for me to learn magic. In the meantime, I tucked the book away in the bottom of my things and settled on taking a bath while I still could.

The sun had just set when I was summoned by one of the elf-maids for dinner. I narrowed my eyes as I walked into the dining hall. Kili still hadn't shown up. At this point, I was starting to get worried. Where the hell had he gotten off to? He wasn't here and he had no bedroom to go hide in. Only halfway through the meal, I decided to leave the dinner table and return to where I had been last night, hoping that he would show up there eventually. Maybe no one would interrupt us tonight.

It took me a few minutes to make my way back to the bridge. Kili still wasn't there. I let out a breath and leaned up against the bars, watching the waterfalls run all around me. It seemed to be lit up with a blue glow. There was something so peaceful about being here. Especially with the moonlight washing over the entire city. I smiled softly. It was a lovely sight. If only the rest of the world, my own and Middle Earth, were just like this. I had been standing on the bridge for almost an hour when I heard soft footsteps falling behind me.

For fear of being disappointed, I didn't turn around. But I was very relieved when I heard Kili's voice say, "May I join you?"

Slowly turning back to him, I smiled. He was standing a few feet behind me. I nodded for him to come up to me. "Wow. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that you were hiding from me," I teased softly.

"Those were not my intentions," Kili said.

"Really?" I asked curiously. Kili nodded. That didn't seem quite right. "Because any time that I've made a move to speak to you today, you somehow find something else to do."

"My apologies. I had to take some time and think," Kili said.

"Not one of your better talents," I teased, trying to lighten the mood. Kili smiled. There still seemed to be something very tense about the look he was giving me. "Want to tell me what's wrong?

"I spoke with Thorin last night after you went to bed," Kili said suddenly.

What did he speaking with his uncle have anything to do with the way he was acting? "Well, he's your uncle, I'd assume that the two of you speak regularly," I teased. Kili gave a tight-lipped smile. "What was the conversation about?"

"A little bit of everything. The quest so far, the map reading last night... you," Kili said slowly.

"Me?" I asked dumbly.

"You," Kili confirmed.

"Any interesting revelations?" I asked nervously.

Did I really want to get an answer here? Not really... "No more than I already knew," Kili said. I arched a brow curiously. "Thorin merely expressed his concerns about the quest. He commented on how you've become a loved member of the company."

"Not by everyone," I put in.

"But by most of us. I was given much to think on last night."

"What does that mean?"

Thorin didn't like me very much. I was sure that he had nothing nice to say about me to his nephew. "Thorin brought up some interesting points of his observations to me. He mentioned that he has realized how attached I've grown to you over the weeks. That is true," Kili said. I smiled. I was attached to him too. "Perhaps I just thought that others couldn't see it. Or perhaps I merely didn't realize the truth."

And that was where he lost me. "I - I'm not sure what that means," I stammered.

"I care very deeply for you," Kili said.

"Yeah, I know," I said immediately. Kili turned to look at me and grinned. That was when I realized what I had just said. "I - I mean... that's not what I meant. I know that you care about me just the way that I care about you. We're friends and, let's admit it, I spend the most amount of time with you. This quest would be so much different without you."

"And I feel the same," Kili said.

There was something slightly hesitant about the way he was speaking. It gave me the same feeling that I'd had earlier. The feeling that something was wrong. The feeling that he was avoiding me because there was something he needed to tell me. Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong. Why wasn't he playing into the way I was teasing him like he normally was? I had a feeling that it was something Thorin had told him. And that was definitely something that I definitely wasn't going to like.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to particularly enjoy where this conversation goes?" I asked slowly.

It didn't sound right. Kili cleared his throat and smiled tightly at me again. "I was hoping to not run into you earlier," he admitted. I stared at him, baffled by what he'd just said. "Not because I didn't want to see you, simply because I had to think about things."

"Okay... I'm not an idiot, but I'm not following you," I said dumbly.

Kili swallowed thickly. "I needed to think of how I wanted to broach this subject. Leah, I care for you likely more than you even realize."

His words seemed to make sense. About ninety-five percent of me knew what he was talking about. He was finally telling me that he had feelings for me. Right? But something seemed wrong here. These were the words that I had wanted to hear Kili say since we had first met. I had always wanted him to tell me that he felt something more for me than friendship. But this wasn't going the way that I wanted it to. He didn't seem happy. And I was dreading his next words rather than being thrilled to hear them.

Ultimately I decided to just get whatever he wanted to say out in the open. "I've never been very good at reading in between the lines. You're going to have to be a little blunter," I said.

"My feelings for you are not friendly," Kili finally admitted. For a long time, I had been staring down at the ground. But now my head shot up so that my eyes could meet his. He looked completely serious about this. "They haven't been friendly since not long after we met. My feelings for you have long since evolved into something more."

"R - Romantic?" I asked nervously.

"Yes."

That was much more sudden than I had anticipated. "Oh... T - Thank you for - for being honest with me," I stuttered dumbly. Come on, Leah. He told you his feelings. Your turn. Be honest. "I guess that should mean that it's my turn to be honest with you. Since I met you back in Bag End, I really liked you and I've... I've had romantic feelings for you for quite a while. Oh man, I've never had to admit my feelings for someone like this." I started laughing awkwardly. "But if you could say it, so can I. I really do like you."

"As do I," Kili responded.

He moved forward, grasping my hands. His were shaking slightly. He still looked a little tense. Maybe he was just nervous about this entire thing. Maybe nothing bad was going to happen. Maybe Thorin had just made him realize what his true feelings for me were. Apparently, I owed him a pretty good 'thank you' the next time I saw him. Was there a chance that the two of us were really about to be together? We both liked each other. We had just admitted that to each other. What came now that we had gotten it out in the open?

"Leah... you are everything that I admire in someone. You are so funny, confident in everything that you do, and charming," Kili said. I smiled at him. I was an asshole, but I'd take the compliment. "Not to mention quite lovely."

We both laughed. "You're quite the looker yourself."

"Looker?"

"It means handsome," I explained.

A large grin appeared on his face. "You are quite strange, but I've always liked strange," Kili said.

That was when I noticed that the two of us had started moving closer to each other. We were now standing just mere inches from each other. Maybe it was time for me to finally do what I had wanted to do for so long. I took another step towards him. Kili's arm instantly found its way to my waist. His fingertips extended over to wrap around the back of my hips as he tugged me up against him. I moved up to stand against him as Kili's hand traveled up my back, onto my neck, and cupped behind my head, pulling me into him. I was sure that we were about to kiss.

At least, until Kili said, "Wait."

"What?" I asked worriedly, backing away from him. "Did I do something?"

"No, no, you're wonderful," Kili gasped.

Were we not supposed to kiss yet? Had I gone too fast? "What is it?" I asked.

"There is another part of that conversation that you need to know about," Kili said.

That was where the nervousness from earlier had come in. There was something that I was missing. "Oh... What is that?" I asked softly.

Kili swallowed again. "Thorin brought something to my attention. He will be the King Under the Mountain as long as we reclaim Erebor. But Thorin has no children. No direct heir to the throne. Instead, that duty falls to Fili, who is second in line. If something were to happen on this quest or Fili was to never marry or he were to get sick before having children, the duty would then fall to me, being third in line," Kili said.

"Uh... are you telling me that you need to have kids?" I asked awkwardly.

That wasn't a conversation I had been expecting. And not one that I'd wanted to have for at least another decade. "In a way. But... I would need to marry someone suitable for the throne to have them," Kili explained.

His words echoed in my head for what felt like hours. What the hell was he telling me? Actually, I knew exactly what it was that he was telling me. I had always been a very smart person. I'd always been able to understand what people meant. But this was one time where I so desperately wished that I didn't understand what he was getting at. Because it was sure to change things between us. And not for the best. When the truth of what he was saying hit me, and I knew that there was no way I was wrong, the pain seared right through my chest.

"You're saying that I'm not a suitable choice," I mumbled.

"No. No, I believe that you are," Kili said suddenly, reaching out for my hands again. I pulled away immediately. "But Thorin does not. The dwarves are the smallest race and we cannot afford to allow outsiders in."

"And I'm an outsider because I'm a human," I answered.

"Yes."

We stood in silence for a few minutes. "Let's not beat around the bush. Why don't you just spit out whatever it is that you want to say?" I said shortly.

If this wasn't going to go the way that I wanted it to, I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. "If things were different, Leah, I would..." Kili trailed off and looked back at me. Something in his eyes softened and then hardened. "Things are not different. I am one of the crown princes of Erebor. And... that means finding a partner suitable for the throne. No matter how I feel."

We stood in silence for a long time. Eventually, I could hear the large clock in the center of Rivendell begin to chime, alerting me to the fact that the new hour had dawned. And with a new hour brought a completely new side of my relationship with Kili. At this point, I knew what was going on. His words had already processed in my head. He really did like me and he wanted to be with me, but Thorin didn't think that I was suitable to potentially ever hold the throne of Erebor or produce a suitable heir. And Kili had to listen to what his uncle - and King - said.

But what about what we had said to each other before any of this had happened? "When you asked me to stay in Erebor -"

"It was before Thorin asked me to stay away from you," Kili interrupted quickly.

"And do you still want me to stay?" I asked quietly.

"On the quest and in Erebor, yes. I would like that," Kili said. So, he still wanted me to be around. But we couldn't be together... "But I understand what your choice may be now that I've spoken freely."

Was this really happening to me? The one person that I had ever wanted to be with so badly was telling me that we couldn't be together? And it turned out that it wasn't even him telling me that we couldn't be together. Thorin had told him so much. I didn't owe Thorin a thank you. The only thing that I owed him was a good black eye for getting involved. When Kili moved towards me, I realized that I was crying. I laughed awkwardly as I brushed the tears away. I had never cried over a guy before. Why the hell was I doing it now? And in front of him?

"I'm crying like it's a breakup and we weren't even together," I said, laughing humorlessly.

Kili looked heartbroken. "Leah -"

"Please, don't talk," I interrupted, holding up a hand. His voice instantly died. "I need to think." I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "You need to know that I understand your choice. I might not like it, but I do understand. We have royalty in Rohan and I know that the princes can't even think to be with commoners. I just wish that the two of you had had that conversation earlier."

"So do I," Kili replied. "I'm deeply -"

"Don't say sorry," I interrupted, probably ruder than I had needed to. "Sorry is the last thing I want to hear right now. Thank you for your honesty. Even though I don't like it. Thanks for not leading me on."

"Leah, I know I've damaged -"

"This friendship?" I asked, already sensing where that part of the conversation was going. "Yeah, it is damaged. But it's not gone. We're still friends, Kili. We are. But I was honest with you. I have very strong feelings for you and they're not going to go away overnight. We're still friends but I need to take some time apart. I need some time to just... learn how to be your friend and nothing more."

"Understood," Kili said.

Maybe this was what had always been meant to happen. Kili was going to get over his feelings for me, eventually meet and fall in love with Tauriel, and die for his troubles. He had ignored the others and been with her. He didn't care to do the same with me. Clearly, he would care for her more than he did for me. And that was okay. I just needed time to get over it. I had never really had a heartbreak before. I had never cared so much about any of my ex-boyfriends. Kili and I weren't even dating, damn it. I just needed to suck it up and deal with it.

Suddenly I felt terrible for laughing at my friends when they had bad break-ups. Now I knew just what it felt like. Kind of... Was Lady Galadriel right? Was I in love with Kili? Was that why this hurt so badly? The two of us spent a long time just staring at each other. It felt like it was the last time that I would ever look him in the eye again. Maybe it was. Eventually, I looked away, feeling the tears continue to run down my face. I was about to turn and leave to return to my chambers when I remembered something. Something that had struck me as odd at the time.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes. Anything," Kili said.

"Why did the dwarves panic when they saw you helping me braid my hair?" I asked.

Kili looked shocked that I had said anything. At least I would finally get my answer as to why they'd thought the hair thing was so weird. "The dwarves are raised to believe that braids symbolize different things. We don’t take hair lightly, as silly as that might seem to you. The beads and braids you see on the company all represent something."

"So, they thought that you were breaking your tradition of keeping to yourselves?" I asked.

"No. They didn’t like the braid that I gave you."

"Which was?"

"Nothing about the braid that I gave you was special. Simply something to hold back your hair. It was instead the fact that I planned on letting you have one of the beads from my own braid to hold it back," Kili explained.

What was that supposed to mean? Actually, I knew exactly what it was supposed to mean. Kili had explained part of the beads in his hair to me before. He hadn't ever been in a real battle before. That meant that the only braids that were in his hair were for the family line that he was from. And he had intended to give one of them to me... That was something that he hadn't done for Tauriel. Suddenly my temples began throbbing with the formation of a stress headache. How much did he really care for me? And did I really want to know that?

My pessimistic side began rearing its ugly head. He didn't love me that much. Tauriel would take my place in a matter of months. "So, what? You weren’t thinking when you did it, obviously. You were just trying to keep the braid together," I said.

"Quite the contrary, actually," Kili said. I turned to give him a sideways glance, unwilling to look him directly in the eye. "I planned on telling you about it later and letting you decide whether you wanted to keep the bead or give it back. We were just interrupted and other circumstances got in the way."

"Right," I said, unsure of anything else to say.

As much as some part of me wanted to stay here and figure things out with Kili, the bigger part of me was telling me to leave and avoid ever having the tough conversation. It was something I had always excelled at. I stared at Kili for a moment, noticing that he seemed to be gradually moving closer to me. There was a burning desire in my core to just move and kiss him and be damned with what Thorin wanted, but I knew that it would only make things worse. If we weren't meant to be together, so be it. I would just have to get over it. I had before. But this time felt so different.

"It's been a long day. I should get some rest," I said suddenly.

"I'll walk you back," Kili said quickly.

"No, thank you. I need to be alone."

"Please, let's talk about this a little more. I don't want to end things like this."

Being with him would only make it harder to eventually walk away. "They're not done with. We're not just never going to speak again. We're still friends. I just need some time to be by myself," I promised.

Kili didn't look happy, but he nodded anyway. "Okay. Yes, I understand."

Swallowing a lump in my throat, I turned to leave again. Kili looked like he was about to reach out and grab for my arm and that wasn't something I could tolerate right now. I needed to be alone. Or, at least, away from him. This was something I would have to process by avoiding him for a while - just the way he had done with me. But I stopped at the last moment. I had actually decided what I'd wanted to do long before I had ever realized that my feelings for Kili were more than a crush. He deserved to at least know my final choice.

"I decided to stay, by the way. Just thought you should know," I muttered.

Kili stared after me as I walked off. "Leah, wait -"

His hands just barely brushed against my arm as I pulled away from him. "No. No, I don't think that's a good idea," I stammered, falling back a few paces from him. "I'll be fine. I just need time."

"Leah -"

"Goodnight, Kili," I said stubbornly.

"Leah!" Kili shouted.

He was too slow to catch me as I darted off without giving him a moment to try and follow me. I knew that he wanted to talk, but I didn't. The last thing that I wanted was to have to talk to him. We needed some time to be apart. I needed some time to cry like a teenage girl getting over her first heartbreak without him seeing me. I ran through the halls, knowing that he would try and follow me. I could hear his footsteps. I managed to get close to the entrance hall when Kili finally managed to fall in step with me and grab me by the forearm.

"Leah..." Kili said breathlessly. He must not have been expecting me to run away from him. I tried to pull back but his grip tightened. "I need you to know something. That's the hardest thing that I've ever had to do."

"Clearly it's not that hard. You managed it, didn't you?" I asked, my voice cracking.

"I -"

"Duty above all else. I understand that. Goodnight," I said coldly.

"Leah -"

"Don't follow me," I barked.

His footsteps halted but his voice called after me. "You should know that my feelings towards you haven't changed." I hesitated a few steps away from the stairs. He continued speaking. "In fact, I'm sure that they will grow stronger every day. And you have my deepest apologies for not saying something sooner," Kili said quietly.

My foot was still placed on the edge of the stairs that would take me back down to the dining hall. But all I wanted was to head back to bed. Stay there and bury my head in the pillows for the rest of my life. I was a damned idiot. Why had I fallen for someone like him? Without another word, I bound down the stairs, hurrying away, tearing through the halls, hoping that Kili wouldn't run after me again. I couldn't handle him right now. I just needed to be alone for a little while. No dwarves, no elves. Maybe some Ben and Jerry's ice cream...

Never had I felt for someone quite the way that I felt for Kili. I had never been expecting something like this to happen to me. I had always just anticipated that I would meet some halfway decent guy and get married and maybe have a few kids. Nothing special. But there was something special with Kili. He made me laugh and made me happy and my heart fluttered each time I was around him. I was like a little kid with their first crush. But the way I was feeling right now told me that it was something more. Lady Galadriel was right. I did love him and now I was heartbroken.

This was exactly the reason that I had never let myself fall in love with someone before. Because I didn't want to deal with a potential heartbreak one day. It seemed that I had gotten one anyway. I deeply wished that things could have been different for the two of us. I had been wishing that we could have worked out. I really wanted to be with him more than I had ever wanted to be with anyone ever before. It wasn't what I had been expecting. Just how strong my feelings were for him had managed to take me by surprise. Perhaps there was a spell in that book to take away romantic feelings.

Back in the dining hall of Rivendell, the remaining dwarves seemed to be having a late-night party in their quarters. That was where they had stayed last night and where they would be until we left. They seemed to be roasting sausages over a fire made by burning the elvish furniture. I rolled my eyes. They had to destroy everything that they touched. I tried to hurry past. I didn't want them to see me like this. Bofur, spotting Bombur sitting on a bench and eating a large bowl of food, looked down at his sausage thoughtfully.

"Bombur!" Bofur shouted.

As Bombur looked up, Bofur threw him the sausage. This part I did remember from the movie. It had always amused me. Bombur caught it with ease. The weight of the sausage was just too much for the bench, and the bench broke under the slightest extra strain. Bombur, shrieking, fell to the floor, along with all his food. The dwarves laughed uproariously as they all began leaning onto each other. I wished that I was laughing with them rather than feeling absolutely miserable about myself.

Normally I would have laughed with the rest of them. Because it was hysterical. Bombur looked shocked at the turn of events and seemed to be getting ready to eat the sausage anyway. Right now it just reminded me of how I was going to have to try and act normal once the morning came and I was back with them. I would have to pretend that nothing had happened between us for the next year. Which seemed impossible at the moment. But they could never know that something had happened between the two of us.

"Oi, Leah!" Bofur shouted, spotted me trying to sneak by. "Come and join us!"

Turning awkwardly away from the dwarves, I tried to wipe my eyes dry as discreetly as I could. "Thank you, boys. But I fear that I'll have to pass. Goodnight," I said stiffly.

Without giving them a chance to speak, I hurried off to bed. "Is she alright?" Fili asked the others.

Some of them looked like they were about to get to their feet and check on me. But I didn't want to see any of them right now. I didn't want them to see just what my conversation with Kili had managed to do to me. I brushed by the dwarves as quickly as I possibly could, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall even heavier than they currently were. I got the sense that Kili was trying to follow me through the halls. I sped up slightly to avoid being caught by Kili. I knew he wouldn't chase me with the rest of the company watching.

As I rounded the corner, I noticed Kili dart into the dining hall. He hesitated at the table. "What have you done to her?" Fili asked his brother.

"Something horrible," Kili whispered back.

The two of them switched over to Khuzdul as they started speaking to each other. Very likely about me. The others also started speaking quietly about what had gotten me so upset in just the past few hours. I didn't want to hear their suggestions. I turned the other corner and burst into a dead sprint, heading straight into the room that I had been staying in. Thankfully it was empty. I slammed the door shut behind me and threw myself onto the bed, sobbing straight into my pillow. This was definitely the first time that I could ever remember being heartbroken.


	11. Chapter Eleven

When I woke up the next morning, I briefly thought that it might have just been a nightmare. Perhaps last night hadn't really happened. But I knew that it had. Mostly because I felt terrible. My head was throbbing, my throat was sore, and my eyes felt almost like they were swollen. It took me a moment to realize that it was because I had barely slept last night. Probably not more than an hour. I had ended up staying awake throughout most of the night in tears, which was definitely something I was a little embarrassed to admit to myself.

The last time that I had stayed up all night crying over something had been when I had been forced to choose between going to a major competition for the gym and staying home to take an exam. I had stayed to take the exam and had ended up missing out on a major prize for the winner. A trip to a tournament in Japan. I had been furious with myself - especially since I loved fighting a lot more than I loved school. But this was different. I had never cried over a person (and a man, at that) before.

Despite knowing that I should have gotten up and done something - anything, really - I didn't bother. I couldn't motivate myself to do anything today. Not knowing that Kili was right outside and I would have to face him. To keep the dwarves from asking any questions, I would have had to pretend that things were completely normal between us. That would have been a problem though. I couldn't even look at him right now. That meant that there was no way I was setting foot outside of my room for the day.

It might have been a good idea for me to go on a run or do some laundry or even read. In fact, I tried to convince myself to do each of those things. But I did none of them. I ended up pathetically spending the entire day in bed. Literally laying underneath the blankets and ignoring the world. I didn't dare come out when Elladan came to get me for breakfast. At that point, I hadn't even managed to get to my feet. I was sure that I looked like a monster or, at the very least, homeless. That would have made my case even more pathetic when I had to face Kili.

Thankfully Elladan said nothing. He walked in, noticed me in bed, and instantly turned back slightly so that he wasn't meeting my eyes. I quietly asked him to bring my breakfast to me in my room instead. Elladan did so without question. When he returned a few minutes later, he did mention that the dwarves had apparently asked where I was. They had seemed concerned as Elladan said. I merely asked him to relay a message that I wasn't feeling well. I knew that they wouldn't buy it, but I couldn't face them all just yet.

It looked like Elladan might have asked me what was wrong, but he decided against it. He left and returned about an hour later - when my breakfast was still untouched - to let me know that the dwarves all wished me well and asked to let them know if I needed anything. Elladan had made it a point to tell me that Kili didn't look well. I asked him to leave it alone. Elladan bowed respectfully and left the room, letting me know that the dwarves would be available if I needed anything. I could tell that he wanted me to take him up on that.

More than once I stirred as if determined to do something or speak to someone, but that never happened. Somehow I wasted the entire day in bed. I wasn't even sick. Heartsick, actually. Elladan appeared intermittently throughout the day to both check on me and bring me food. He came to bring two cups of tea in the early afternoon and shortly after dinner. He also brought me lunch and dinner. It remained mostly untouched. I ended up running the bath and sitting in it for most of the day. It was some form of comfort, at least. It was also the only thing I could really focus on.

Once I could no longer sit in the tub (the water had turned ice cold) I hopped out of the bathtub and seated myself back on my bed, wrapped in bath towels and robes. I curled up in the windowsill with the book of magic that Lady Galadriel had given me. Most of it was nonsensical. I realized that the book was actually written in another language. How the hell was I supposed to ever find out what was a spell and what was a direction? It was almost impossible. It didn't help that my mind was on another planet entirely.

More than once I tried to do some of the spells that I could make out. But the entire thing was completely useless. I just made myself sound like a moron. At least I was alone and not making a fool out of myself with other people around. My mind was completely occupied with what was going on with Kili and myself and our damn relationship. Even if I was able to keep my focus on the magic, somehow pushing last night out of my mind, I knew that it was likely I didn't have it. I had never had anything even close to it before.

At some point in the evening, well after my dinner plate had been cleared, I'd given up on trying magic, and had drained the bathtub, I heard someone knocking on the door. It didn't take long for me to realize that it was Kili. My hand hesitated at the knob as I debated on opening it for him. He was asking me if I would come out and speak to him. For just a moment I debated on it. In fact, I came pretty close to opening the door. Maybe just to talk to him about what had happened last night.

But I couldn't bring myself to face him just yet. It wasn't time. Perhaps once I had some time to think everything through and make a game plan. I had stared blankly for most of the day, trying to force every thought out of my mind to keep myself from crying. Thankfully my lamp was already out, only helping my case that I was asleep. I knew that he wanted to wait for me to wake up and speak to him but I overheard an elf-maid asking Kili to let me sleep. He let out a deep breath before asking the elf-maid to let me know that he was looking for me.

She promised that she would. The elf-maid didn't bother coming into my room seeing as I had asked her to leave me to myself earlier in the day. I let out a soft breath and headed to sit out on the veranda to my room for a little while, thinking about my past in the old world. I had never felt something like this before. I never even thought that I might feel brokenhearted over someone I wasn't in a relationship with. The entire thing was so silly. But I cared - and still cared - so much for him.

The only breakups that I had ever had before this were pointless. The breakups were never anything that terrible. It was usually quick and painless - on my end, at least. They had gotten emotional sometimes but I never had. I had never really liked the guys that I was with that much before. I had been sparing Brian the breakup mostly because we were more friends with benefits than anything else. It would have seemed weird. But there was something about Kili... he was so much different than anything I had ever had before.

There were very few times I had ever found myself hurt before and it was never over a person. There was a conversation that I had gotten into with Harley last year that suddenly came to the forefront of my mind. We had been sitting together in my room after I had let her know that I was staying home for the night. I had just broken up with a guy named Michael I had been dating. We had been together for a fair bit of time but it really hadn't been anything that wonderful. I really hadn't been that interested in him. He was honestly kind of boring.

"You're not going out with Michael?" Harley asked quietly.

"We broke up," I said carelessly, leaning back against the pillows.

Harley shot upright. "What? When?" she gasped.

"Uh... a few days ago," I more asked than said.

Harley merely stared at me for a moment, almost like she was trying to read my mind. "Are you okay?" Harley asked carefully. I nodded. "We can go get ice cream and rent The Notebook."

Laughing softly, I nodded at her. "Honestly, you're such a sap, Harley. I'm fine. I've got some studying to do tonight anyway," I said, reaching over to the edge of the bed and picking up my books. "Finals are coming up."

Harley stared at me for a long while. "You're really not broken up about this?" she asked.

"Not particularly," I shrugged.

Harley looked like I had just punched her. "You were going out for months!"

"So?"

Harley merely laughed. She had always been the more romantic of us. I supposed that it wasn't really in me. "You're like a robot," Harley said, laughing at my careless look. "I don't get you."

"I don't know. I guess I just don't get attached to people that easily," I told her.

The only people I had ever been attached to were my siblings. "I can't wait to see the kind of relationship you get in where there's a guy that can really break your heart for the first time," Harley said, grinning wickedly.

My face dropped. "Thanks, sis," I deadpanned.

Harley began laughing as she launched over and wrapped me in a hug. "Meant with all the love in the world, of course!"

"Of course," I giggled, shoving her off of me.

We both laughed for a moment before calming down. "Hey, I think it's nice," Harley said quietly, reaching over and grabbing my hands. I smiled at her. "You're saving that relationship for the right person. You're going to meet them eventually and I know that you'll love them with your entire heart. And they'll have no idea just how special they are."

The corners of my lips turned up in a wide smile. "Thank you, Harley. That was really sweet," I told her.

"Just make sure if he ever hurts you, I'm here to kick his ass," Harley said.

"Seriously?"

Harley thought on that for a moment before saying, "Okay, make sure I'm around to cheer you on while you kick his ass."

When it came down to it, if either one of us could hurt someone, it was definitely me. Harley was no weakling, but she was definitely a lot weaker than I was. She preferred sharp words and backhanded compliments rather than just settling for punching someone directly in the eye, which was my preferred method. We both laughed as I laid down with my head in Harley's lap. Her fingers ran through my hair as she helped me study with my finals. I might not have been in love with anyone, but I definitely loved my sister.

But that had all changed. Because there was someone I loved now. I had managed to fall in love with someone. At least, I had a feeling I was in love with him. I thought I did. But that one person that I had fallen for was someone I couldn't love and someone who could never love me back. The one guy that I had ever really had any feelings for was the one guy who had managed to break my heart - whether or not he'd meant it. That was because I completely understood why he had been forced to do it.

My mind was back on Kili and I knew that it wasn't going to be anywhere else tonight. There was no use pretending that I would be able to think of anything else. I placed the book of magic down on the table on the veranda and looked upward toward the slowly sinking sun. I let out a deep breath, trying to only think of the peaceful air. I ended up having to close my eyes to try and keep myself from crying again. I had cried too much already. I would get over this, just like I always had before. I would. I knew that I would. There was no other choice.

Fili's P.O.V.

As usual, Fili had spent most of the day with the dwarves. He had only wandered off a few times just to take a moment to be by himself, something that he hadn't really gotten in weeks. In Rivendell, all of the dwarves had been enjoying having some time to just relax and recuperate after the long journey that they had already had so far. Fili had been enjoying some time where he hadn't had to constantly sit on his pony. He definitely didn't miss that. He much preferred walking or only riding for short periods of time.

Fili was sitting at the dinner table, glancing around to everyone else. As he was so used to, the dwarves were making a ton of noise and quite the mess. The elves likely couldn't wait to get their company on the road and away from the clean halls of Rivendell. Not that Fili cared. His thoughts were somewhere else. His brother was right next to him, like always, but Leah was nowhere to be found. In fact, Fili hadn't seen her all day. It was unusual for her to miss a meal. One of Lord Elrond's sons - the one who had taken her to be healed - had informed them that she apparently wasn't feeling well.

When they had all asked what was wrong, Elladan had merely told them that it wasn't serious. Leah had apparently just wanted to lay in bed for the day. But something about that seemed wrong. Fili had seen Leah crying on the way back to her room the night before with Kili just behind her, clearly trying to catch up to her. But it hadn't worked. Now Kili had been quiet all day and Leah (evidently sick) was nowhere to be found. It was wrong. What had happened between the two of them? As everyone else absorbed themselves in their own conversations, Fili leaned over to his brother.

"Where has Leah been all day?" Fili asked Kili quietly.

"In her room," Kili responded tonelessly.

"All day?"

"It appears so."

Fili knew that he was getting nowhere with his brother this way so he decided to try another approach. "Why has she been in her room all day? It’s unlike her to not come and socialize with everyone," he pointed out carefully.

"She’s just not in a social mood today," Kili said.

Fili knew his brother well enough to hear the aggravation in his voice. "Neither are you, it seems."

Kili let out a soft breath and pushed the hair back off of his forehead. "It's been a long journey and a long past few nights. Perhaps I just need some time to sleep," he explained.

"You slept almost ten hours last night," Fili pointed out.

Kili's head snapped up to him. "Did I?"

"Yes." Fili debated on going the roundabout way but decided against it. He would rather go the direct route. "What’s going on between the two of you?" Fili asked his brother.

Kili's head shot up to meet Fili's. His face flushed slightly as he tried to set it. "Nothing. We just aren't sitting together today," Kili muttered.

In the back of his mind, Fili knew that he should have just let it go and tried again when his brother looked better. But he couldn't stop. He needed to know what had happened. He had never seen Kili the way that he was now. So careless and definitely somewhat depressed. Kili had always talked nonstop and laughed at everything. If Fili knew his younger brother at all, he knew that he would have normally gone to Leah's room and demanded that she join them, even if it meant them getting sick. This wasn't about her illness. It was about something personal between them.

This was something that Kili likely needed to talk about. "Abnormal for the two of you," Fili pointed out. Kili nodded blankly. Fili reached over and laid a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "Nadadith... what happened between the two of you?"

Kili looked up at his brother. That was when Fili realized that the edges of Kili's eyes were red. He might not have been crying, but he was certainly upset about something. "I had a conversation with Uncle that involved Leah and my evident attachment to her," Kili admitted.

"And that was?" Fili asked.

Kili stared at the other dwarves for a moment. "Let's walk."

"Okay."

The two of them stood from the table and instantly made their way out to the gardens, briefly letting the rest of the company know that they would be back soon. They were all too engrossed in their own conversations to even bother much with the brothers. As they made their way out to the gardens, Kili recounted the story of his conversation to his older brother, clearly hoping that he could possibly shed some light on what his next move was supposed to be with Leah. Fili's face contorted with fury.

It took him almost ten minutes to completely understand what it was that his brother had just explained to him. The entire thing made no sense to Fili. There were so many things wrong with it. It was almost impossible for Kili to ever ascend to the throne. He had always been given more liberties than Fili had, being the younger and third in line to the throne. Thorin had never cared who Kili spent his time with before as long as they brought no shame on the family. Leah might have been a little different but she in no way brought any shame to their family. Not to mention that Kili loved her.

Fili was silent for a long time before asking, "Thorin asked you to stay away from Leah just because she's human?"

"Yes," Kili said.

"What, exactly, did he say to you?" Fili asked curiously.

"Pointed out a few things. I was a crown prince of Erebor. In the event that something were to happen to either you or Thorin, I would become the King Under the Mountain. A Dwarfish Kingdom. Leah is a mortal woman. He deems her unworthy of a throne. Just like that, she's mortal. She'll die many years before I will and I... I would have to watch her," Kili explained to his brother. Fili didn't miss the way that his voice cracked slightly at the thought of her death. "He says that I'm young. I can find another."

Fili almost gasped at Kili's easy surrender. "Anyone with eyes would realize that it doesn't matter. None of that matters," Fili said fiercely. "Find another? I think you've found the only one who will ever matter."

"I agree," Kili mumbled.

What the hell had happened to his confident younger brother? "Why would you have listened to him?" Fili asked.

"He's our King," Kili answered.

"And you're in love with her," Fili said, without thinking better of it. Kili stared at his older brother. Fili had already said it. He couldn't take it back now. He was just going to go with it. "Aren't you?"

Kili was silent for a long few moments. "Yes," Kili finally admitted. Fili let out a soft breath. This wasn't the way that his admission of his love for her was supposed to go. "I told him that it broke my heart."

"Of course it did. You're in love with her," Fili pointed out. "To stay away from her -"

"He should have said something to me long before my feelings ever grew this strong," Kili interrupted, his voice wavering slightly.

A sharp pain shot through Fili. He wanted his little brother to be happy. But he knew that he didn't want to disappoint Thorin or step away from Leah. It wasn't a good situation, no matter what he did. "You think that a warning from Thorin would have done anything? If this woman truly is the only One that you will have, a warning would have meant nothing. This will mean nothing. Your heart will always belong to her," Fili pointed out.

He loved his uncle, but Kili was his brother. He would do anything to make him happy. Leah made him happy. Kili swallowed thickly. "I fear it already does," Kili said quietly.

"Why would you listen to him?" Fili asked, placing his hand on the edge of Kili's face. "Kili, you love her. Thorin makes some good points, but it's highly unlikely that you will ever ascend to the throne. It shouldn't matter either way. If you love someone, what's to stop you? The rest of the company love Leah. We all do. She clearly makes you quite happy, doesn't she?"

"More than anyone else does," Kili answered automatically.

Fili knew that. He knew that his brother was in love with her. He was thrilled that Kili had managed to find true love before he had. Now he just needed to hold onto it. "Forget about doing what Thorin tells you that you should do. You love this woman. You care more for her than I've ever seen you care for anyone else. Kili... Don't think about the future. Don't think about the fact that you are a prince. Don't think about what your position will be once we take over Erebor. Think of how you feel for her," Fili advised his younger brother.

Kili was quiet for a long time as he merely stared at his older brother. There was so much emotion in his eyes. Fili had known his younger brother well enough to know that he was trying to consider every option. He always loved everything with every fiber of his being. When it came down to the end of things, Fili knew that Kili was in love with Leah. He knew that she was the only person who would ever make Kili truly happy. He saw it all. He saw the laughter in his eyes each time he spoke to her. He saw the shine in his eyes. He saw how happy he was with her.

There was a spark of life in Kili's eyes that Fili hadn't seen in a long time. It was all because of her. "I already gave Thorin my word that I would end whatever things are between the two of us," Kili said, sounding emotionless.

Fili was determined to not ruin his younger brother's one chance at true love. "Let me talk to Thorin," he offered.

Kili's eyes brightened for the briefest moment. That was enough to convince Fili that he was doing the right thing. "You truly think that this will change his mind?" Kili asked.

Would it change anything? There was only one way they could find out. That was by saying something. "I think that you deserve to find a woman that you truly love," Fili explained. Kili had always been flirtatious. But this... this was something more. "It doesn't matter that this woman is a human. You love her and she very clearly loves you. Thorin needs to understand that."

Kili looked hopeful only for a moment before his face fell and he said, "I've already ruined things."

But Leah had always seemed to be the forgiving type. "Maybe not. Leah seems to be rather forgiving," Fili pointed out.

"You've seen how upset she is with me," Kili said quietly.

"Understandably so," Fili pointed out. Leah had every right to be angry with Kili and everyone else around right now. To his surprise, even Kili nodded his agreement. "She's going to be angry for a little while. But I am positive that she understands the situation. Given some time and an attempt to change things, she may forgive you."

Kili was quiet for a moment before saying, "Thorin did make one point that I can't argue with. She's a mortal woman." Fili merely stared at his brother blankly. "Her lifespan is nothing compared to ours."

Yes. The one major problem was that there was no way to fight against time. But that shouldn't have mattered. They deserved a real shot. "Time means nothing. No one knows how much time they have here. What matters is the way you spend it," Fili explained. Kili gave a somewhat bitter smile. Their father hadn't gotten that long with their mother, but they had made it last. Hadn't they? "A year, twenty years, or a hundred years. What does it matter? The only thing that matters is that you spend with her is the time that you can always cherish. Even after she's gone."

Kili swallowed thickly. Fili knew what his younger brother was thinking. It was almost impossible to tell where their relationship could go. The two of them were very clearly in love. That much was obvious. But there was the issue of time. Leah was a mortal woman. That would be the true problem. They had at least one hundred years between the two of their lifespans. That would be a long time that Kili would have to live without her - through the prime of his life. Could he manage it? Could he learn to respect the years that they did get together?

"You speak as if the two of us will be together forever," Kili said slowly. Fili nodded. "As if... we are destined to end up together."

"I think the two of you are," Fili said.

"Why is that?" Kili asked.

"Because I've never seen you with a woman the way you are with Leah," Fili said. Kili almost cracked a smile. There was no one that Kili had interacted with the way that he'd interacted with her. That was what had tipped everyone off to his love for her. "You love her. There's no doubt in anyone's mind. You've always had a friendly personality. But there's something more with her. You're not just friendly. You care for her. You know things about her that I know no one else in the company knows. The two of you have some kind of connection. One that I only wish I could have one day."

The two of them spent a few minutes in silence. "You think I should be with her?" Kili finally asked.

"What do you think?" Fili responded.

"I think that she's the only woman I could imagine being with," Kili admitted.

That was the only thing that he'd needed him to say. Just to know that he really did love her. To know that this was really worth it. "Be with her, Kili. Let me talk to Thorin about it," Fili offered. Kili smiled gratefully. "The two of you should be together."

If it meant getting into a fight with Thorin himself, Fili was more than willing to fight for Kili's happiness with their uncle. "It might take me a while to get back in her good graces. Leah was quite angry with me last night and doesn't seem to be willing to forgive me any time soon. I tried to see her earlier. One of the elf-maids told me that she was sleeping and wished not to be disturbed," Kili explained.

"Be prepared for many apologies," Fili said.

They both laughed softly. They were both used to having to deal with angry women for some reason or another. Whilst Fili might not have spent as much time with the opposite gender as Kili had (he was always busier with lessons and had been a little more serious), he had always loved his time with women just as much as his brother. He knew what it was like to have a woman angry with him. There were a number of women who had been angry with Fili for something or another. Usually speaking to another woman. But it was always because he had never felt that connected to one of them.

That was the whole point when it came to Kili and Leah. There was something different about the two of them. It was sweet to see each other. Kili always laughed when he was with her. The two of them laughing and chatted constantly. They even slept together. It was a little bit inappropriate (Fili himself had never slept with a woman like that) but it was a nice sight. It was very clear that neither one of them had any intention to lose each other. Fili knew that. So did his brother. That was why the two of them leaned forward and gave each other a quick embrace.

Once they had pulled apart, Kili smiled at his older brother. "Thank you," Kili whispered.

"I only want your happiness, Kili," Fili said.

"I know. And I appreciate that."

This would work. If there was one thing that Fili could do, it was getting Thorin to budge on Leah. "Just give me a little while to talk to Thorin. We'll get everything sorted," Fili told his brother, who smiled gratefully at him. "In the meantime, try and eat something. Starving yourself won't make her any happier." Kili nodded slowly. "On second thought, your misery might just make her slightly happier."

Anything to make him laugh. Much to Fili's pleasure, Kili laughed softly. Fili followed suit by laughing a few moments later. The two of them tucked into each other as they headed back to the meal with the rest of the dwarves. Over the next few hours, Fili could see that things were a little bit better now that Kili was back in the conversation, but they still weren't quite the same. Kili was still slightly withdrawn and there was still the lingering absence of Leah. It weighed on the entire company. But Fili would manage. He would get the two of them together, even if it killed him.

Leah's P.O.V.

Nearing the end of the night, I tried to go to bed. I was so desperate to get an end to the entire disastrous day, but I wasn't tired yet. I could only assume that it was mostly because I didn't do anything today. Almost no physical exercise. There was nothing to sap my energy. I tried so desperately to fall asleep over the middle hours of the evening, but nothing seemed to be working. I would be up until the early hours of the morning if I went like this. So I decided to go for a walk through the gardens, hoping that everyone was already asleep.

It was the first time that I'd walked out of my room over the course of the entire day. My legs were slightly tired from the lack of use. Once I had made my way outside and into the gardens, I noticed that it was the middle of the night. I had gotten that one day that I'd needed to get over it. That was all that I had allotted myself. One day to get over everything that had happened. One day and I would be back to normal. I would be friends with Kili and that was it. At least, that was all that I would allow anyone else to think.

That would be the main problem with everything. I didn't want anyone else to know what the hell was happening. They couldn't know. I needed to ensure that I would be over everything by tonight. Or, at least, by tomorrow morning, knowing that I would have to come out and see the rest of the dwarves at some point tomorrow. They would be getting suspicious. I knew that we would be here for around two weeks and I couldn't manage to hide in my room for all of those days. Things would look terrible if I did that. I had to pretend that nothing was wrong.

As I walked off a little further into the gardens, I realized that it must have been earlier than I had originally pegged it for. It sounded to me like all of the dwarves were still awake. I could hear the dwarves having themselves another party. It seemed that they were having a quieter, but enjoyable all the same, kind of party. I thought about joining them for a moment before realizing that Kili was reading quietly in the corner. I could just barely see him. No... I wasn't ready to be in a room with him just yet. Perhaps I would be okay eventually. But not yet. So I headed to the staircase and meandered on.

It was a little depressing walking away from them but I knew that Kili would be trying to talk to me right now and I wasn't ready to talk to him. Not in front of everyone else, at least. It would have to be a private moment. I headed out into the hall where the dwarves were staying and took a side path, making my way to another staircase that would bring me to the lower levels. I was a little surprised to see Bilbo standing at the base of the stairs. I smiled awkwardly as he turned (giving me a bright smile) and I made my way down to him.

"Leah," Bilbo greeted, smiling at me. He grasped my hands and pulled me into him. "We've missed you today."

"Sorry, Bilbo. I uh... I needed some time to get away from everything," I explained awkwardly.

"Everything? Everyone? Or just one person in particular?" Bilbo asked knowingly.

My face flushed slightly. "That obvious?"

Damn it... Was there a chance that everyone was already talking about what had happened between Kili and me? Bilbo smiled guiltily. "Just for you to be warned. Everyone noticed that Kili was absent for most of the day yesterday. You walked off and came back later running ahead of him looking quite upset. Today Kili is back with the dwarves but you are nowhere to be seen. It's become the topic of discussion," Bilbo explained.

"Like little children. Looking for anything to gossip about," I said, rolling my eyes.

"You are right about that."

"Great. Just what I wanted."

The entire thing was so frustrating. This was an awkward enough situation. This was something I had wanted to stay between the two of us - and Thorin, technically. But this was something that didn't need to get around to the rest of the dwarves. There were still months left in the journey. If they all knew what was happening between Kili and me, there was a good chance that things would get tense between everyone. At least if it was just between the two of us we could deal with it in private.

Probably realizing that I was feeling a little awkward about everything, Bilbo smiled again and leaned back against the railing. "Sometimes talking about it helps," He offered.

Did he really want to hear about this? "You don't really want to hear about my boy problems," I muttered stupidly.

Bilbo laughed, waving me off. "I don't mind listening. We just want to ensure that you're okay."

"I'm... I don't know. Kind of okay, if that makes sense?" I offered.

Brokenhearted for sure, but I didn't want to say that I was completely broken. I was still determined to do what I had been sent here to do. "Kind of okay?" Bilbo repeated back to me. I nodded. "I'd like you to be a little more than just kind of okay."

"Maybe in time," I said truthfully.

"Might I assume that this has something to do with Kili?" Bilbo said quietly.

Despite how upset I was, I started laughing. "Of course it does."

Bilbo smiled. "Take it from me, Leah. Men don't always say what they mean."

"No, he didn't say something stupid. I mean, he did, but not something stupid like that. He wasn't being rude to me," I tried to explain. Bilbo merely stared at me. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"Not particularly," Bilbo admitted, making us both laugh. "Take your time, Leah. And if you don't feel that you can share with me, please feel free not to."

"Well... It might help to talk about it if you're willing to listen?" I asked awkwardly.

"Of course," Bilbo said.

It would definitely help me to just talk about what was happening. This wasn't something I could deal with on my own. If Bilbo was willing to listen to me, it was worth talking to him about. So, I opened my mouth and couldn't ever force myself to close it. I didn't quite know what the hell was happening to me. I had never done this before. But everything just came pouring out of my mouth and I was unable to stop for a long time. Everything that I was feeling just came out and there was no way for me to shut the hell up.

Thankfully Bilbo never even looked like he was going to laugh. He took the entire thing completely seriously, which I appreciated a lot. I started off by telling Bilbo all about my feelings for Kili from that first moment we had met. Bilbo did briefly mention that he had noticed it in my eyes from that first meeting at his doorstep. I blushed slightly. I always had been obvious about when I had a crush on someone. I even mentioned just how quickly they had developed from a schoolgirl-like crush to something that felt like genuine love.

It was easy to see that Bilbo was smiling at the thought of my admission that I really did love Kili. That led me into admitting that I had recently realized that my feelings for him were far more than just friendly or flirtatious. I did mention that I had always had a little bit of a flirty personality. It was just my nature. I liked to tease people and that often came off as flirtatious. But there was something about the way the two of us spoke to each other. There was something about the way he made me feel. I had long since realized that it was something like love that I was feeling for him.

Was I necessarily in love with him? I couldn't have been completely sure. It was definitely more than just a little crush. I knew that much. It might have been love. But that was something I had never experienced before. I had never liked to say things unless I was absolutely positive. I was almost positive. Not quite, but close. Despite all of that, I had admitted to Bilbo that I had a feeling that I really was in love with him. He smiled brighter than he had since I'd met him. I could tell that he was thrilled to hear that.

There was a piece of me that was thrilled with the thought of potentially being in love. Although there was the simple fact that we couldn't be in love with each other. I mentioned to Bilbo about how our relationship had so quickly developed. From strangers and training partners to friends and definitely connecting on a romantic level. The two of us talked about everything from both our deep and meaningful conversations to our careless and goofy conversations. I had mentioned our somewhat cheesy training sessions and even how our sleeping arrangement had developed.

We had gone from an accidental arrangement to being almost unable to sleep if we weren't touching. Bilbo smiled slightly. I told him that I knew that Kili had romantic feelings for me. He had admitted that much when we had talked last night. In fact, I had mentioned that I was somewhat confident that he was in love with me. There was something that seemed right about it. He just seemed too interested in me and our relationship to be just a crush. Bilbo seemed to be nodding his agreement the entire time.

Not that I blamed him. It must have been extremely obvious that the two of us felt extremely strongly for each other. After taking a few deep breaths - forcing myself to remain cold about the entire thing - I decided to just go for it and tell Bilbo about my conversation with Kili last night. I started with my explanation that we had both admitted our feelings for each other and just how much we cared for each other. To a point, at least. Before we had been interrupted... Bilbo looked absolutely thrilled to hear that we had admitted it to each other.

If I could have ended the story right there, I would have. That would have been a lovely way to end our little romance. We had admitted our feelings and lived happily ever after. But I knew that this was somewhat of a drama movie and that meant there would be some romantic drama. After getting myself together, I told Bilbo about what had happened in the conversation between Kili and Thorin. The moment I had, Bilbo's face fell. He looked as though he couldn't believe just how much of an ass Thorin was being about our relationship.

That probably took the longest - just explaining to Bilbo that things had taken a sharp turn from admitting our feelings to the conversation afterward. The almost rude way I spoke to Kili, even though he didn't deserve it. I Knew that he was just trying to be honest with me and I had attacked him for it. Bilbo looked like he agreed that I had done the right thing. Just walk away and take some time to figure things out. But I knew that my actions had really hurt him. I knew that I should have stopped and spoken to him.

But it had been too hard. The feelings had been too new. They were still too new. I told Bilbo the reason that he had seen me blow past the dwarves so quickly last night was because I had wanted to get away from Kili before he could stop me and try to talk things out. I explained just how desperate Kili had been to get me to talk things out. I mentioned that I had been avoiding him the entire day and had done very well so far. I didn't want to have to talk things out. Because that would officially end things between us. I knew that we would have to, but I wasn't ready to do it just yet.

It was selfish but love always was. Bilbo was quiet for a long time after I had finished my entire story, which had taken a long time. He seemed to be looking back and forth, thinking about what was the best thing to tell me. I knew that there was no good thing to say right now. That was why I was so grateful when he came forward and wrapped me in a tight hug. That was probably what I had needed more than anything. Just some form of comfort in a fatherly way. Nothing more. When we finally pulled apart, I smiled.

"Thanks," I said quietly, wiping my eyes. "I think I needed that."

"Of course. We all need human comfort sometimes," Bilbo said.

"Yeah..." I muttered.

"Especially when we are lacking it from the one we crave it from the most," Bilbo added.

There was a little sparkle in his eyes. That was the thing about Bilbo. He had been able to read me like a book since the first moment I had met him. He always knew when something was bothering me. He had just let me come to him when I needed something. Naturally, he knew that I would really crave Kili's attention. I had since I'd first met him. I loved those moments of privacy that the two of us got. He was the one person who knew about my past with Robbie. He knew more about me than my own sister did. There had to be something to say about that.

Letting out a soft breath, I gave Bilbo another small hug. "You know me better than most of the people here. You know that he's the one I spend the most time around. I'm used to just doing whatever I want with him. Sleeping with him, hugging him, or just sitting with him," I said awkwardly. Bilbo nodded at me. "It feels like I can't do that anymore. It feels like I have to avoid him. It feels like I have to take some time and just figure things out again."

All I wanted was for things to go back to normal. But that seemed highly unlikely. "Perhaps that is what you need to do," Bilbo admitted. I nodded sadly. "But perhaps you need to think about what it is that you genuinely want."

"What do you mean?" I asked confusedly.

"Does it really matter what it is that Thorin Oakenshield wants?" Bilbo asked me. I merely stared at him blankly. He was the king. Wasn't his opinion the only one that mattered? "It shouldn't matter. When it comes down to it, yes, Kili is a prince and could potentially hold the Throne of Erebor one day. But more than anything else, he is a young man that deserves to find someone he loves. You are a young woman who deserves to have a man who genuinely loves her. The two of you belong together. Anyone with eyes can see it."

"But with what Thorin said -"

"You deserve to be with someone you love," Bilbo interrupted.

"No, I don't love him," I muttered awkwardly.

"Are you so sure?" Bilbo asked disbelievingly.

It would have helped if I had been in love with someone before. "Honestly, I don't know. I've never been in love before. I couldn't tell you whether or not I love him. I just know that I care for him more than I've ever cared for anyone else," I said honestly.

Bilbo thought on that for a few moments. "Kili is young. He's very susceptible to influence from the authority figures in his life. His older brother and uncle; both above him in line from the throne. He is likely in shock from what Thorin told him. He loves his uncle and wants to make him proud. Of course, his first reaction will be to do what he wants. But he will begin thinking about what he's done and, I promise you... the guilt was in his eyes last night," Bilbo said, almost as if he was unsure if he should have said it.

There was no doubt in my mind that Kili felt terribly for what he had told me last night. It made complete sense. He had essentially broken my heart last night and he had known that he would do it before he had even said anything. But there was a difference between trying to imagine what a conversation was going to be like and actually having it. I knew that the conversation hadn't gone quite as well as it could have gone. I hadn't reacted well. That was likely what had hurt him so much. Knowing that he had devastated me.

"Because he felt bad for hurting me," I mumbled.

"And he realizes what he's done," Bilbo added. "Would you accept an apology from him?"

"I don't need one. I understand what he did and why he did it," I answered truthfully.

He owed me nothing. I knew that things had to happen. "Take it from me, the day will come soon that Kili will understand that the matters of his heart are more important than loyalty to a throne," Bilbo said reassuringly.

"I don't know... he looked serious about it," I said.

It wasn't just that he had looked serious. Thorin must have been serious about his demands. "But I saw him last night. I saw how desperate he was to follow you and try to explain what happened," Bilbo said. I swallowed thickly. He had even come to try and talk to me about it this afternoon. "Doing something and then living with the aftermath of it are two very different things. Perhaps he realized just what he had done."

"He meant what he said," I muttered.

Bilbo gave me a sad smile and shook his head. "He is also not a child. He understands matters of the heart," Bilbo said. After the conversation with Kili last night, I definitely didn't doubt that. "He knows that this is not a love that will fade. It will burn on and on and grow stronger as time passes."

There was also what he had told me before I'd walked off. At the time I had thought that it was because he felt guilty and wanted to make me feel slightly better. Now I had to wonder if he had really meant it. You should know that my feelings towards you haven't changed. In fact, I'm sure that they will grow stronger every day. I hadn't turned back to look at him when he'd said it. But I had felt it. The way that his eyes were boring into the back of my head. I'd thought that he was lying. But now Bilbo was echoing those same sentiments. Could they have been true?

"You really think that?" I asked bashfully.

Bilbo smiled again. "I've watched the two of you for long enough to know that you are destined to be together. You love each other," he said simply.

How did everyone know but me? It was my life! I still wasn't completely sure. Even if I was sure, there was still one massive problem. "What about what Thorin would say?" I asked quietly.

"The Leah I know would never care," Bilbo said playfully.

"But Kili would," I said stubbornly. He didn't want to disobey his uncle. "What if Thorin..."

I didn't need to finish my thought. "Took away Kili's right to the throne?" Bilbo filled in.

Would Thorin do it? I wasn't sure. I knew that Thorin was a stickler for the rules. But I had also seen the films and read the books enough to know that his nephews loved him very deeply and vice versa. Was that love enough to allow one of them to disobey direct orders from another without consequences? I wasn't sure. I knew that Thorin wasn't a complete bum. He must have known that this was killing his nephew. Was there a chance that he could have a heart and understand that it was highly unlikely that Kili would ever ascend to the throne? To just let him be happy?

Which was all assuming I could save the three of them... My life was far too complicated. "That's the only thing I was thinking might have been stopping Kili. He could potentially lose his seat to the throne, or at least part of a prestigious family," I muttered to Bilbo, trying to distract myself with thoughts that were no happier.

"Leah... think about what it is that you're saying," Bilbo said. I shook my head. I wasn't following him. "Thorin might be tough on his nephews, but he loves them. They're his family. He might not love the idea of the two of you together, but I think it's something that he might be able to grow into. No matter what, he will understand that you two are adults and allowed to forge your own paths in life. Even if that means changing traditions."

Changing traditions... I could remember them talking about changing traditions with the British Royal Family from time to time in the old world. Not that I had ever cared very much about them. But if they could change (despite the changes being rare) maybe there was a chance that Thorin could change. I thought about Bilbo's words for a long time. I wasn't really sure what would happen if Kili stayed with me. I had a good feeling that Thorin wouldn't ever take away Kili's position to the throne or his placement in the family, but I did think that Thorin would be very unhappy with his nephew.

"Maybe he'd be a little angry. A lot angry, actually," I admitted. If there was one thing I had learned about Thorin, it was that he didn't like being openly defied. "But you think that he would eventually grow to get used to the two of us?"

"I think he already is. I think that's why he said something," Bilbo said knowledgeably.

"Things are so awkward between the two of us right now..." I mumbled.

Evidenced by the way I had hidden like a coward when he'd come to speak to me earlier. "That's what conversations are for. You just have to be willing to talk to him," Bilbo told me. I huffed. I didn't think that I could speak to him right now without crying or screaming. "I think you've already seen that he's willing to speak to you."

"I just don't want to get him into trouble with his uncle... and... I don't know. I've never really had a broken heart before. Not like this. It's just tough to talk to him right now without getting upset. I don't know," I said dumbly, well aware that I wasn't making any sense. "I think I just need some time."

"Take all of the time you need. But you should eventually try and talk things out," Bilbo advised.

In the back of my mind, I knew that he was right. This wasn't something that the two of us could ignore forever. There were too many things that were still unspoken. We would never be able to have another real conversation with each other if we didn't get this out of the way. There would always be this tense air around us. What we really needed was an adult conversation to talk about where our relationship was going (and could go) from here. But I knew that I was still too emotional.

Even if we did manage to get together, there would always be a shadow lingering over us. "You know, Thorin made a good point when we were talking. Thorin did bring up with Kili the fact that I'm just a mortal woman. We'll both die eventually, but I'll die long before he will. He'll be without me for decades. If we really loved each other that much, what would life be like for him?" I asked.

The question was loaded and I knew that there was no way Bilbo could answer it. There was no one who could answer that question. Not even either one of us. Bilbo was quiet for a long time as he paced back and forth. I knew that I had given him an almost impossible question. It was a tough situation no matter what. My mortality made things even worse. But I had never even thought about that until Thorin brought it up. Was it a fair question to ask? Definitely. What if my death completely devastated Kili? I knew that his death would kill me inside. I drove my palms into my eyes.

"That's something that I don't think anyone can answer for the two of you," Bilbo said, giving me the answer that I had been expecting. "That's a question that only the two of you can have an answer to. Will it be hard? Of course. But would it be worth it? What do you think?"

"I think..." I started, swallowing thickly. No matter how hard I searched my mind, I couldn't find an answer to my problem. "I think I would need to know what he thinks."

"When you're ready, I think the two of you owe each other a conversation," Bilbo said gently.

"What do you think I should do?" I asked him.

"I think the two of you will know what to do when the time comes."

"Damn it..." I groaned, throwing my head back in frustration. "I just need someone to tell me what to do."

"Unfortunately life doesn't work that way. We have to think for ourselves," Bilbo said. "But if you're taking other opinions," I nodded my consent for him to give me his opinion, "I think that I've never seen two people fall for each other as quickly as you have. And whoever said that love was easy? True love means that you care enough to fight for what you have and that you love enough not to let go."

Did I care enough to fight for Kili? Of course. But I cared enough about him to bow out when I knew that it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to ruin things between himself and his uncle. They were family. I was just some moron who had gone on a drinking bender at a local bar and literally managed to fall right into his life. He hadn't asked for this. He hadn't asked for me. Maybe he could move past me. Maybe I was just going to be a little blip in his life. I would go back home and this would all be over.

"Thank you," I told Bilbo, glad to at least have gotten to talk out some of my worries. "Time is against us though."

"Time is against everyone. It's about loving and treasuring the time that we do have," Bilbo said.

For a long time, I was silent, thinking about his words. He was right about one thing. We did all have time against us. Everyone's lives would come to an end, as would their love. But they never died with the other having over one hundred years left. By this point, I was moderately sure that I loved Kili. It was exactly the kind of love that I was used to laughing at. Those people who fell fast and hard for each other. Now I had managed to do just that. Not to mention that it was killing me that I couldn't be with him.

"The love that we can't have is the one that lasts the longest, hurts the deepest and feels the strongest," I muttered quietly.

Bilbo gave a slight frown. "That's a sad thought."

"But it's a true one."

"It doesn't have to be," Bilbo said determinedly. "You and I both know that the two of you are meant to be together. Whether or not Thorin Oakenshield sees that is a different matter."

The love that we couldn't have... that was the kind of love the two of us had. It was sure to last forever. Even when I was back home, I was sure that I wouldn't forget Kili. I would compare everything back to him. I would always feel that he was the one I was meant to be with. Thorin had destroyed that hope that we could be together. I would have loved to get the chance to be together. To even see where the two of us could have potentially gone. I smiled at Bilbo sadly, glad that I at least had someone to speak to about this.

"You know, I don't have my mother or father here with me. And they were never really good for the emotional talks anyway. My little sister was still too young to have real talks about adult relationships," I explained. Bilbo nodded at me. "It's nice to have someone here to give me, I hope you don't take offense, fatherly advice."

Bilbo smiled, letting me know that I hadn't taken it a step too far. "I don't take offense at all. In fact, I'm quite honored you think so highly of me. And I do hope that you can speak to me in the future," Bilbo said.

"You don't mind?" I asked nervously.

Bilbo shook his head. "Not at all, Leah. Please come to me whenever you need," he said.

"Thank you, Bilbo."

"My pleasure. And remember something, Leah. If you're truly meant to be together, life will find a way," Bilbo said.

Perhaps one day the two of us would work out. But that was a long time away. We had really destroyed the one shot that we had gotten to be together. I smiled at Bilbo slightly as he opened his arms for me to walk into a hug. I tucked my cheek on top of his head as he patted me on the back gently. I really did love Bilbo to death. In a fatherly way, at least. He meant so much to me. He really had become a wonderful friend to me. Even though I didn't have Kili in my life right now, I was definitely glad to have Bilbo.

There was also the helpful fact that he had given me some genuinely good advice. Maybe there was a chance that I didn't have to listen to Thorin. Maybe neither one of us needed to listen to him. Thorin did love his nephew. He loved all of the dwarves. There was no way that he would ever cast out one of his nephews. I could try and be friends with Kili. But if that didn't work... I wasn't quite sure. Maybe we could try a romance? Maybe not though... Wouldn't I go home after the quest was over anyway? Having to leave would just hurt us both.

If it would hurt us both to leave, maybe there was a chance that we weren't supposed to be together. It wouldn't be fair to either one of us. I drove my palms into my eyes again. I so desperately wanted to be with him but I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. I supposed that I had time. I would just have to figure it out. As I was about to ask Bilbo would he thought of me potentially leaving at the end of the quest, I overheard some voices. We both turned to see Lord Elrond and Gandalf talking to each other down on a veranda below us and across the river.

We both moved to the edge of the railing to listen to them a little closer. "Of course I was going to tell you. I was waiting for the perfect chance and really, I think you can trust that I know what I am doing," Gandalf was telling Lord Elrond quietly.

"Do you?" Lord Elrond asked Gandalf disbelievingly. "That dragon has slept for over sixty years. What will happen if your plan should fail? If you wake the beast?"

"But if we succeed. If the dwarves take back the mountain, our defenses in the east will be strengthened," Gandalf pointed out.

"It is a dangerous move, Gandalf," Lord Elrond warned.

"It is also dangerous to do nothing," Gandalf said. Lord Elrond merely stared at him. "Oh, the throne of Erebor is Thorin's birthright." I turned suddenly, sensing someone standing behind us. We both turned back to see Thorin standing behind us, listening in. My throat closed up slightly as I looked back at the others. "What is it you fear?"

"I fear you've forgotten. A strain of madness runs deep in that family. His grandfather lost his mind, his father succumbed to the same sickness. Can you swear Thorin Oakenshield will not also fall?" Lord Elrond asked. Ouch... That had to have hurt to hear. "Gandalf, these decisions do not rest with us alone. It is not up to you or me to redraw the map of Middle Earth."

"With or without our help, these dwarves will march on the mountain. They're determined to reclaim their homeland," Gandalf told Lord Elrond.

It must have really hurt Thorin to hear someone talking about him like that. It wasn't fair to say that he would fall prey to the gold sickness just because his family had. I shifted somewhat awkwardly, almost finding that I did feel bad for Thorin. He could be a real ass but he wasn't crazy. I knew that much. He was definitely tough but he was a man, just like anyone else. Words had the potential to hurt him. I turned to look at Bilbo, who was clearly embarrassed to be standing with Thorin after overhearing that. The Hobbit looked about ready to walk away.

Bilbo turned to me. "Perhaps it's time that we retire to our own chambers. Can I escort you back?"

There was something I had to do before heading to bed. "I think that I'm going to stay for a little bit. Goodnight, Bilbo... and thank you for the conversation," I said quietly.

"Goodnight, Leah. Whenever you need to talk, you know where to find me," Bilbo offered.

"Thank you."

It was wonderful for me to get the chance to talk to Bilbo whenever I needed him. It would help to have a confidant. Bilbo left and gave Thorin a brief nod as he walked off. Thorin barely looked at him. As he walked off, I shifted to stand on the opposite end of the veranda from Thorin. He shifted to look up at the sky toward the stars, looking to be lost deep in thought. I wanted so desperately to hate Thorin for what he had done, but I couldn't stand the thought of anyone doubting themselves. It was the teacher in me from when I taught the kids at the gym.

"Just because your father and grandfather fell prey to the gold sickness doesn't mean that you will," I told Thorin, drawing his attention to me. He looked quite suspicious that I was talking to him as a friend. "What your family does, doesn't define the kind of person you are. You define yourself."

Thorin stared at me for a long time before saying, "Thank you."

"Surprised that I'm talking to you?" I asked.

"Slightly," Thorin admitted.

"You thought that I'd still be mad about you asking Kili to stay away from me."

"Yes."

"Surprised he told me?"

"I knew that he would eventually."

There was something so guarded about Thorin's voice. "But you didn't think that it would be so soon," I continued.

Thorin shook his head. "Not yet. I thought that he would need some time to think about it."

"He probably should have done that," I said. He should have thought out a better way to explain everything to me. But it was too late to change that conversation. "But I knew that he needed to tell me before he lost the nerve. It's a good thing that he said something now. End whatever it was before things got even stronger between us."

Thorin said nothing for a long time. He merely glared at me. It wasn't quite a glare, but I didn't know what else to call it. All I did know was that he didn't look happy. He was staring at me. He didn't look exactly thrilled with the way I was speaking to him. But I didn't care. I was being honest with him. I was genuinely hurt at what had happened between the two of us. Three of us. Whatever. I was hurt but, at the same time, I did understand where he was coming from. I knew that his concern was warranted.

Finally, Thorin said, "How are you handling things?"

"I'm surprised you asked," I said.

"You are a part of this company. I do care for everyone's well-being," Thorin pointed out.

"That's nice to hear. Thank you," I said slowly. Thorin nodded. "Well… I'm not exactly thrilled about it. But I do understand what you've asked of him. Kili is a crown prince of Erebor. I'm a lowly commoner. We have royalty back in Rohan. I understand how unlikely it is for a relationship like that to ever work out. So, while I don't like what you've done, I do understand it."

Thorin stared at me disbelievingly. "That is a very mature stance to take on the subject."

"That's what I try to aim for," I said.

As stupid and immature as I could be sometimes, I tried to be as mature as possible. It was something that my family and friends had all applauded me for, each of them more than once. The two of us stared at each other for a long time, as if trying to play a power struggle without words. I knew that he wanted me to obey what he had asked and he knew that I was hesitant to do that. Which one of us would bend first? Probably me. That was only because I knew that he did have a right to ask me to step back. But that would never change how much I hated it.

"Miss Ambrose, you must know that this was nothing personal against you," Thorin said. I somehow doubted that there wasn't even a slight personal hatred in there. "I simply want what is best for my nephew. He is a prince. He needs to be ready to take the throne at a moment's notice. And when the time comes, produce heirs worthy of the throne."

"Understood. Old-fashioned, but understood," I answered coldly.

"The rest of the world is not as progressive as Rohan seems to be," Thorin said defensively.

"Isn't that the point?" I snapped back.

"Pardon?"

"Progression has to be made before anyone is comfortable with it. I'd have thought that you would understand that more than anyone. After all, didn't everyone else think you were crazy for marching on the mountain this soon?"

For a long while, Thorin merely stared at me. There was no emotion on his face other than confusion. I knew that he didn't understand me. The rest of the dwarves would never truly understand me seeing as they were from essentially a completely different time. But I had meant what I'd said. There was never any comfort in progression. It made people nervous. But it had to happen if it meant ever moving on in the world. One day they would have it here too. Who knew? Maybe I could be the person to bring it to light. That day wasn't yet, though.

So, I let out a soft breath and admitted defeat for me. "Just do me a favor?" I asked. Thorin nodded his consent. "When the time comes, make sure that he picks a girl who's worthy of him. Not just the throne."

Thorin stared at me for a moment before saying, "Of course."

For a moment I debated leaving. But there was still something I needed to say. "You should also know something else," I said, turning back to Thorin. "I never cared about his position or wealth. I love your nephew. As a man, nothing more."

Thorin stared at me for a moment. "Yes. I never doubted your intentions," he admitted.

"Just my position," I answered.

"Unfortunately," Thorin said, straight-faced. It was impossible to read his face. He looked like he was about to walk away before something stopped him. He turned back and stared me in the eyes. "He loves you, as well."

I swallowed harshly. "I know."

Truthfully, I did know that Kili loved me in some way. The question was how deeply that love went. At the moment, I was sure neither one of us knew. "He will likely never completely forget you. I fear that you have rooted yourself too deeply in his heart," Thorin told me.

Apparently, it wasn't that deep. Kili had already ended whatever thing it was between us. But Thorin also knew his nephew. He knew what he was talking about. That made me incredibly nervous. I found myself standing there, feeling incredibly awkward. I couldn't have made that much of an impact on him in the short time we had known each other. We would eventually manage to forget our feelings for each other. We had to. I could tell that Thorin wasn't going to budge on this. I could feel my throat starting to close up, threatening to spill tears.

"That might make for some interesting conversations when the time comes for him to choose a bride," I laughed.

My voice gave a slight crack. Thorin was staring at me as if he thought I was insane. That was just something that I had to do. I couldn't keep standing here and staring at Thorin like I was broken. So, I had returned to the one thing I had always known. Humor was the only thing that I had ever been able to use to keep myself smiling. Thorin was still staring at me and he did so for a long while. He looked like he might have wanted to say something about Kili, but he clearly wasn't fond of the deep talks. Not that I blamed him.

Thorin cleared his throat and shifted, going right back to his typically domineering personality. "It is growing late. You should sleep," Thorin ordered gently.

"Can I ask you something before you leave?"

"Certainly."

My voice stuck in my throat for a moment. "Has he ever had someone in his life before?" I forced out.

Thorin gave me a surprised look. "Not the way you've fallen into his life," he admitted.

I arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I've never been under the impression that Kili was serious about his position or title. He's always enjoyed a more relaxed way of life. Speaking freely to who he likes. He's found himself with members of the opposite gender of most races. But there's never been someone like you. No one he always returns to. No one he defends as much as he does with you. I very highly doubt that he would ever let you out of his sight if you didn't insist that you could handle yourself - something that he clearly enjoys," Thorin explained.

We were silent for a long time. "What does that all mean?" I asked dumbly.

You're a moron, Leah. You couldn't have said something slightly smarter? "It means that no one will ever take your place," Thorin said patiently.

"He can fall in love with someone else," I muttered.

In fact, he would fall in love with someone else. I couldn't tell Thorin, but soon enough he would be dealing with Tauriel. "Not the way he loves you," Thorin said determinedly. No way... "Dwarves believe that each person has one true love and that one person is the one we are determined to be with. If we don't find them or lose them, we are usually destined to find something else to occupy our time."

This would all work out a little while down the road. Thorin would get over his problem with Kili's relationship with me soon enough. We would grow out of that little crush we had on each other and he would move onto Tauriel. As Thranduil said, it was real. But what Thorin had just said kept echoing through my mind. Did Kili love me differently? Was there a possibility that he did love Tauriel, but there was someone he could have loved more? If there was that one person and that one person was me... My head was throbbing with a stress headache.

"As for him?" I asked curiously.

If I was that one person, could I have possibly swayed Thorin's point of view on our relationship? "He is royalty. He has duties," Thorin said stubbornly.

"Honor above love. Cold way to live," I scoffed.

"But it is the way to rule," Thorin explained.

"That must be fun to tell your nephew," I snapped.

They were family. How could they ignore each other's wants? "You mistake thinking that this is easy for me. This is not the situation that any of us wanted," Thorin said slowly.

"On that much, we agree," I said.

We both stared at each other for a long time. I knew that Thorin hadn't wanted to do this. But that didn't change things. That didn't change that he could have ignored this. There was definitely a tense air around the two of us, just as there had been since we had started talking. I knew where Thorin was coming from. I understood his point of view. I knew what he was thinking. He wanted to protect his nephew's propriety and heart. It broke my own heart, but I knew that he was right. I loved his nephew. That meant that I had to take a step back.

Which meant that it was time to leave. "Goodnight, Thorin," I said, turning to leave. He nodded at me. "Don't take what they said to heart. You're a good man who loves his people and his home. Sometimes a little too much. But that's not always a negative thing. Sometimes it's just what you need. It's what will help you reclaim Erebor. I'm sure of it."

Thorin was silent for a long time, clearly wondering what he could say to me. Finally, he settled with, "Goodnight, Miss Ambrose."

It made perfect sense. He was way out of his comfort zone. I supposed that I was out of my own comfort zone too. I turned away from Thorin, briefly laying my hand on his shoulder, before heading back to my bedroom feeling completely heartbroken. I knew that it would be the hardest thing for me to do, but I had to stay away from Kili. He deserved better than me. He deserved someone who would be worthy of a royal title. That wasn't me. It would never be me. I could never give up the personality and freedom and stubbornness that I had now.

Once I walked into my room I turned to my bed and laid down, forgoing slipping on my pajamas or anything of the sort. I merely slipped a silk robe over my shoulders and stared up at the ceiling for a long time. Over and over again I willed myself to forget about Kili and about the conversation I had just had with Thorin. I didn't want to read too deeply into anything. We would just be friends... Kili was just going to be my friend... I knew that I could do it. With those thoughts in my mind, I eventually drifted off to sleep.

My gentle slumber didn't last very long. Which made perfect sense, because I really wasn't that tired in the first place. It hadn't worked earlier and it wasn't working now. There was a gentle tune flowing in through the windows that I assumed some of the elves were playing. I smiled gently. I liked it. There was a harp and what sounded like a violin. It reminded me of the songs that I used to listen to in my old bedroom that had helped me fall asleep after my strange dreams that took place in what I had now realized was Middle Earth.

The music was quiet but it was loud enough to keep myself awake. Not to mention that I wasn't tired at all. I headed out of the door and towards the veranda on the other side of the dining hall. I walked over to the railing that hung over the gardens and watched the stars twinkle as the music drifted out to me. It didn't take long for my nails to begin tapping against the stone rail. It was late already but I could still hear the dwarves chatting softly back in their quarters. It might have been nice to see them for a while, but I knew that Kili would be with them.

Speak of the Devil and he shall appear. "Care to dance?" Kili's voice called.

Very slowly I turned back and spotted Kili just behind me. It was the first time that I'd looked him in the eye since our conversation last night. He looked as though he hadn't slept. His hair was tangled and his clothes were at least a few days old. The normal shimmer in his eyes was slightly dim. I let out a breath as I stared at him. For a moment I debated on leaving, but I knew him well enough to know that he would just follow me. No one else was around us right now. They were all in the hall. This would be a good chance to talk to him. But my voice lodged itself in my throat.

"Do you really think that's the best idea?" I asked quietly.

Kili smiled, some of the sparkle returning to his eyes. "Clearly we both know by now that I don't have the best ideas."

Even with how awkward the air was between us, I almost smiled at his very obvious reference to the troll attack. He had - despite his best efforts not to - allowed me to stay with Bilbo to try and get the ponies while he had gone with Fili to get the rest of the dwarves. They had taken too long and it had resulted in me getting the skin torn off of my wrists. I smiled weakly at Kili and took a step away from the railing, well aware that this was not going to be a good idea. Then again, I had never had the best of ideas. I brushed my hair back behind my ears shyly.

"Right now?" I asked him.

"Right now," Kili confirmed.

"I don't know how," I said truthfully.

"I'll teach you," Kili promised.

My foot moved on its own accord toward him before I pulled back. "You know, I did mean what I said before. I really don't think that's the best of ideas right now," I said regretfully.

Kili's face fell slightly. "We're still friends, aren't we?" he asked. I nodded. "Can't friends share a dance?"

"I'll make a fool out of myself," I said bitterly.

"You never could," Kili said sweetly. I smiled just the slightest bit. "Come on. One dance, please."

"Okay. One dance," I conceded.

It barely occurred to me that the music had died for a moment and started back up when Kili strode toward me, offering me his hand. The elves must have been watching. I smiled awkwardly and took it. There was a slight jolt in my stomach. It was the first time that we had touched since he had told me that we couldn't be together, despite our feelings - a strange occurrence, since we usually slept together. The entire thing was the slightest bit awkward for me as he pulled me flush against himself and clasped our hands together. He was perfectly confident in his movements.

Every bit of the very little I knew about dancing flew out of my head. I couldn't remember for the life of me what we were supposed to do. Thankfully he knew. Kili very slowly stepped into me and I remembered to step back and counter his movements. We swayed back and forth simply for a long time. I had never really danced before this but I was enjoying myself. I loved it, as a matter of fact. Kili's hands were resting possessively against my waist and hips as the music floated around us. Kili smiled down at me as we twirled together. I had missed just being around him.

It was a dangerous game. I could feel my heart fluttering as my forehead drooped down onto his chest. His entire being was unexpected. My entire relationship with him was something that was so unexpected. I truly did not expect him or his effect on me, my heart, my mind, or my feelings. No one had ever affected me quite in the way he had. He was the calming sound of the light pitter-patter of light rain on an April Sunday morning in my brutal, destructive hurricane. His playful smile countered my concerned stares. My hands tightened on his.

My heart thundered in my chest as we stopped moving together. Our hips swayed slightly, but that was it. Otherwise, we were merely standing together. I knew enough about dancing to know that how firmly his hand was on my back was wrong. His hand wasn't just resting on my back. He was holding me and pulling me as close to him as he could. He had managed to fold me into the crook of his arm then turn himself into me, closing whatever space was left between us. He wasn't just clasping my hand. His fingers were completely folded over my own.

He was holding me as if he let go, I would vanish. Maybe that was his fear. He was completely leaned into me, even despite us already being pressed together. As I looked up and met his eyes I realized that there was a different look in them. Was it... relief? Yes, it was. Despite our confusion on our feelings and the right thing to do, we both knew this. His entire body had relaxed as if it was finally letting out a massive sigh. There is no confusion here, no battle to figure out what is right or what is wrong. This makes sense. This is right. This is how it should be.

Against my back, I could feel Kili's hand winding into the fabric of my tunic. His fingers dug into the material, almost feeling like they were going to tear it. He very gently rocked us from side to side but we were barely moving. Instead, I felt him press his mouth up against the corner of my temple. I breathed out softly as I turned into him slightly, finally fully relaxing my body into his. My forehead leaned down slightly to rest gently against his shoulder. His chin fell over my head. The moment felt perfect as if it should have been frozen in time.

My throat finally became unstuck. "Do you know when we're moving on?" I asked quietly, trying not to shatter the peaceful air around us.

"Likely in a fortnight," Kili said, his lips brushing across my forehead with each word. "Thorin wants everyone to take some time and rest. Gather their energy and replenish our supplies."

"We'll be on our way soon enough then." Kili nodded. "Are you ready to go home?"

There was no hesitation in his voice when he said, "I am home."

His head had lifted off of my own. I was about to raise up my own when I realized that he wanted me to look him in the eyes. But I couldn't. Not right now. It took me a few moments to realize that he had meant me. I was his home and he knew it. Just the way that he must have known that he had become my home. I swallowed an ever-growing lump in my throat. I had known that this was going to be a bad idea before we'd even started dancing. As I felt myself step into him again, I knew that things were going too far. But I also couldn't stop myself.

Kili clearly knew that he wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to look me in the eyes. So, instead, he settled on letting our bodies say everything that our mouths couldn't. There was something about being with him that I had never felt before. It wasn't like dancing with my prom date. This was... perfect. The feeling of being curled up in his arms with our fingers intertwined and the soft feel of his breath on my neck could never be put into words. The only thing I did know was that it was where I belonged and it was in those arms that I felt at home.

"You're a good dancer," I whispered, trying to distract myself.

"Thank you. I learned when I was young. Took lessons for it," Kili explained.

I grinned at the thought of Kili darting around, trying to ignore his dance lessons. "That's cute."

"Yes," he agreed. "You have the makings of a good dancer."

"Do I?" I asked curiously.

"Yes."

"I was enrolled in classes when I was younger. I left my class after just two lessons when I refused to dance with a boy in my class. I didn't like him. He was rude and made fun of me. When they made us dance together, I stepped on his feet," I told Kili.

It had been a ballet class and my mother had been furious with me for not at least trying. My father and Harley had laughed. Kili laughed, too. "That sounds very much like you," he said.

My throat tightened slightly. "I've only ever really danced with one person before," I admitted.

"Who?" Kili asked curiously.

"Robbie," I said, barely above a whisper. Kili stopped spinning us in surprise. His hand moved from my back to my chin, tilting my head up to meet his. "We used to spin around the living room or the yard. He would stand on my toes while I swirled the two of us around. It was the most I ever heard him laugh."

His lips turned upward slightly. "That must be a nice memory," he whispered.

"It is," I mumbled.

"This must not compare."

Not in the same way, but it did. "No, it does. Trust me, it does," I said honestly.

This was the first time that I had really danced since Robbie's death. It was the first time that I could remember really enjoying myself when I danced with someone else. We lapsed into somewhat awkward silence after my admission. I didn't mind. It let me remember my time with Robbie. Kili had since replaced his hand on my back to keep me pressed firmly against himself. I could feel his lips tracing across the top of my head. I sighed softly and tucked myself against his chest.

"You can stand on my feet if you like," Kili finally offered. I laughed loudly, leaning my head down against his chest. I could feel his smile. "I've always enjoyed dancing but I don't do it often."

"Why not?" I asked curiously.

"I've been waiting."

"For what?"

"The right partner."

"Did you find the right partner?" I asked.

"Yes," Kili said immediately.

My head lifted off of his chest to look him in the eye. The right partner... Maybe I had been looking for the right partner for all of those years since Robbie's death. I had finally found him. I could vaguely feel Kili's hand sinking slightly lower on my back, wrapping all the way around my body to rest on my other hip. I was completely trapped in his arms. There wasn't a single part of us that wasn't touching. Our faces were almost pressed together, our lips mere inches apart.

Then the music abruptly ended, shattering our little world. I looked up, meeting Kili's eyes, the fog in my brain having faded. "I think that’s the end of our one dance," I said, stepping out of Kili's arms.

"Leah," Kili said, calling me back. "One more?"

Say yes... "I would love that. I really would. But I think we both know that it would be a bad idea. We shouldn’t be together, like this, right now. You know that," I said quietly, hating myself for it.

"Perhaps that is why I'm looking for any reason to be around you," Kili said.

Why did he have to make things so hard? "We made our choice. You're going to follow Thorin's orders, which I understand. I'm a lot of things, and understanding is one of them. I understand why he asked you and why you said yes. But now you have to live up to that. Because this isn't fair to you or to me. Dragging out these feelings when we both know that nothing more can ever come of them," I said firmly.

Kili stared at me for a long time, emotions flitting in and out of his eyes. I hoped that he could read in my eyes what I couldn't say out loud: Fight for me. But he did exactly as I told him and said, "You're right."

A stab of disappointment shot through me. "I know. As much as I wish I wasn't," I whispered.

"I hope you find someone far more worthy of your heart than I am," Kili told me.

"I won't," I answered.

I turned away when Kili called out to me again. "Leah."

"Yes?" I said, turning back.

"Can I at least walk you back?"

In the old world, walking someone home was almost always an excuse to go home with someone without explicitly saying it. I wished that it was the way things were right now. I would have loved some time, genuinely alone with Kili for a while. I would have loved to believe what Bilbo had told me. But I knew that Kili had already made his promise and I had made mine. He wouldn't give up his position and I could never be a royal. Not to mention the issue that I would only live a fraction of how long he would. A life together wouldn't be fair to either one of us.

Even with all of that in mind, I hesitated for a long time. "No," I choked out, wishing I hadn't said it. Kili looked dejected. "This was good. But this moment reminded me of just how easy it is to fall back into a pattern with you. We can be just friends one day. I believe that. But we need to be apart for a while."

"Do you honestly believe we can just be friends?" Kili asked.

I can't... "Do you?" I asked.

Kili shifted on his feet for a few moments before straightening up. "I'm not sure that I can ever forget my feelings for you. But I will not ever risk losing this friendship. I'll do whatever I need to save what I can," he said determinedly.

But would I ever be able to look at him as a friend? "Goodnight, Kili," I said.

If it meant still being able to have him in my life, I would have to be just friends with him. I would get over it. Maybe it would also help me act a little more objectively when the time came to save his life in the Battle of the Five Armies. I groaned in frustration. I moved forward to try and give Kili a side-hug goodnight (which was probably a mistake). He surprised me slightly when he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. I smiled as he leaned down and pressed a kiss against the corner of my mouth. My heart gave a pathetic flutter.

"Goodnight, Leah," Kili whispered, releasing me from the hug. "Will we see you tomorrow?"

"At some point, I'm sure," I said carelessly.

Once I was sure that I wasn't going to make the rest of the company uncomfortable. "Leah! Kili!" Bofur's voice shouted for us. I stepped out of Kili's arms, suddenly aware of how close we were standing, and looked to the dwarves. They were hanging out on the balcony, watching us. Had they been watching us the entire time? "Come join us!"

"Bofur!" Bombur shouted at his brother.

"What?" Bofur asked.

"Give them a moment, laddie!" Oin said, still watching us anyway.

Balin stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should all give them a moment," he said, pushing the others away.

"Carry on!" Gloin called to us.

We both laughed, waving them off. My face was bright red. "Tell them that I said goodnight and I'll see them in the morning, will you? If they ask, I just wasn't feeling well today," I told Kili.

"Of course." The two of us stared at each other for a while as Kili thread our fingers together. Pull away, idiot. But I didn't. I stared at him. He brushed my hair back off of my forehead and smiled. "You are everything I cannot have and everything I ever wanted. What a beautiful contradiction you are," Kili whispered, almost to himself.

No one had ever said anything even remotely close to that before. No one had ever spoken to me the way that he did. I wanted to cry at his beautiful statement. I knew automatically that he was the only person who would ever say something like that to me. I hated having to leave him like this but I knew that it was the right thing to do. Being around him was too painful right now. Especially when he said things like that in that kind of romantic Shakespearean talk. We stared at each other for a moment as the little voice in my head whispered to me to be damned with what Thorin had said and go for it anyway.

But I had made a promise. We had all made our promises. Going back on them now would just make things harder. Pulling my hands out of Kili's, I turned and walked off before he could say anything else to me. I heard one of his heels click as he made to follow me before stopping. He let out a little breath but didn't say anything else to me. He was just going to let me have this one. As I walked off I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding. My entire relationship with him had become so difficult and complicated. How the hell was I supposed to manage to be around him for the rest of the journey?

Another year of the two of us in this awkward limbo? Could either one of us do it? Maybe the right thing to do was stay in Rivendell and go back home. It was selfish, but I didn't want to do that. I loved the dwarves and Middle Earth. I fit in here in some strange way. I didn't want to go back home. I wandered through the halls as I attempted to make my way back to the room. But it wasn't working well since I kept thinking about my time with Kili and my time here. After a few minutes, I managed to stumble into one of the gardens. Too tired to try and sleep anyway, I decided to go for a stroll.

I wasn't left in peace for long. "You look disturbed, Leah Ambrose," Lady Galadriel said.

She stood on the far end of the garden, beckoning me to her. "Yeah, I guess I am," I muttered dumbly.

"Tell me."

"It's the same thing I was upset about yesterday."

"The dark-haired archer," Lady Galadriel said thoughtfully.

"Yeah."

"Would you care to talk?"

First Bilbo and now Lady Galadriel. Did anyone want to talk about anything else? "It feels like this is all I ever talk about these days. My relationship with him," I whined.

"Perhaps that is the thing that is on the forefront of your mind. There is nothing wrong with wanting to talk or think about someone," Lady Galadriel pointed out.

But it was the only thing on my mind. "Doesn't it make me sound a little pathetic? You handed me a book on ancient magic - which I am so grateful for, by the way, and I promise I will get to it - but right now all I can focus on is a damn guy," I told her honestly.

"When we love someone, it is very rare to be able to put something else in the forefront of our mind," Lady Galadriel said.

Love... There was that damn word again. "Can I ask you something?"

"Certainly."

"Was there ever a moment when you weren't sure about your husband?" I asked. Lady Galadriel stared at me confusedly for a moment. "You weren’t sure if things would work out or if he was worth it or suitable to you? Anything like that."

If there was any chance that I could make things work with Kili, I would take it. "Love is a funny and fickle thing. People think that they must sacrifice for love. In truth, there should be nothing sacrificed for two people in love. If you are in love with Master Kili, no one should be able to tell you otherwise," Lady Galadriel said wisely.

"Do you think I’m in love with him?" I asked her.

"Do you?" Lady Galadriel shot back.

That was the question that I didn't have an answer to. Were the two of us in love? I really didn't know. I definitely did care for him. There was some love there. Actually, there was a lot of love there. But there was a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. The question was whether or not we were there. I was quiet for a long time as I thought about what Lady Galadriel said. She never pushed me to say anything. She merely watched me curiously. I never came to a conclusive answer.

"Does it really matter?" I asked quietly.

Lady Galadriel smiled. "When it comes down to it, there is nothing that matters more than love. That is the one thing that everyone deserves. Nothing is worth anything without love."

"It's not like I'm not without love. I love my friends and family," I answered.

"But there will never be anything that can compare to romantic love."

"I've never felt a romantic love before."

"Are you so sure?" Lady Galadriel asked.

A slight smile appeared on her face. She didn't even look the slightest bit bothered by my confusion. In fact, she looked like she thought it was kind of cute. But was I sure? I really didn't know. I really did think that I might have loved him. In fact, I was sure that I loved him. I was moderately sure that he loved me too. He had made it obvious enough. I just knew that we couldn't be together after everything. We weren't supposed to be together. There were too many things destined to keep us apart.

"But I have to fall out of love with him," I finally said.

"Says who?" Lady Galadriel asked.

"Me. Thorin," I mumbled.

Literally, everything said that the two of us had to be apart. "If the two of you are in love, who is Thorin Oakenshield to keep the two of you apart? If you are in love with him, nothing should stop the two of you from being together," Lady Galadriel asked.

"But what about the line of ascension for the throne?" I asked her. "Kili is only third in line and I am not suitable for a throne."

"That's what you think," Lady Galadriel said hopefully.

The mere thought of me on the throne was hilarious. I would fuck it up so badly it wasn't even funny. "But what about the fact that I'm a human? I'll die so much sooner than him," I mumbled.

"What about all of those years that you could be together?" Lady Galadriel offered.

"You're telling me to be with him?" I asked her.

"I am telling you to do what feels right."

"It's a hard thing."

"So it is. But you will find your answer, Leah Ambrose."

"Thank you, Lady Galadriel."

She was right. My answer was out there somewhere. I just had to try and find it without getting angry. "The hour grows late. You should return to your chambers. I do believe you have some thinking to do," Lady Galadriel finally said.

My favorite thing... Thinking about romances... "We'll see if I ever figure it out," I said irritably.

"You will," Lady Galadriel promised.

"Goodnight, Lady Galadriel," I told her.

"Goodnight, Miss Ambrose," she replied.

Time to do some serious thinking, I supposed. Although I was sure that it wouldn't make much of a difference. This was something that would likely confuse me for the rest of my life. I gave Lady Galadriel a slight smile as I turned and walked back into the halls of Rivendell. Maybe getting some sleep would help me. I headed toward my chambers and walked inside, locking the door behind me. I ended up just sitting on the bed and staring at the wall for a long time, irritably blowing out puffs of breath. What the hell was I supposed to do right now?

Could I go for a run to try and clear my head and go back to sleep? That might not have been a bad idea but I was still a little lightheaded from the poisoned arrow. I was emotionally drained anyway. I merely sat on the bed for a long time after the moon had risen. It must have been the middle of the night but I still wasn't ready to get up. I thought about reading the book of magic Lady Galadriel had given me but I couldn't focus. So, instead, I decided to write a letter to Harley. I hadn't done it in a long time anyway. I pulled out a quill and my journal and started my letter.

Harley,

Long time, no talk. Could really use someone to talk to right now. Especially you who knows me so well. Today is one of those days when I do miss those late night conversations that we used to have. You know, the ones where we would sneak into one of our rooms after we were supposed to be in bed and talk for hours. About school or work or friends or boys. Whatever was bothering us that particular day. Mom and Dad always knew I think, but they also thought that it was important that we had our time together.

Right now I think I could really use with one of those nights. Honestly, I need a fucking bottle of gin or something like that. I’ve been having a rough go of things lately. We’re in Rivendell right now. It’s as beautiful as you might think it is. There's something so lovely about this place. Magic is in the air, as cheesy as that might seem. The elves are gorgeous. I met Lord Elrond and Lady Galadriel. They’re both as perfect as can be. Lady Galadriel gave me a book of magic, which is cool. I even met Elladan, Lord Elrond’s son. He’s beautiful, just not my type. You know me. I like the rugged ones.

Which brings me back to what I had been telling you before. Kind of. More of what I've been telling myself. I’ve been growing closer and closer to Kili. I can see you skipping all over the place. You always thought he was hot. It's obvious to everyone that there's something going on between the two of us. We sleep together every night, we’re constantly talking, and there have been a few near-miss kisses.

Last night we had a conversation about our feelings for each other. It was so romantic. We were on this bridge overlooking a waterfall underneath the stars. Sounds like a movie moment, right? Makes sense. We both admitted that our feelings for each other had long since been more than friendly. It was the confirmation I needed. I just needed to know that he cared for me as much as I cared for him. It seems that he does. We were seconds away from kissing last night. But don’t get too excited. The story gets worse from here.

It turns out that Thorin had a conversation with Kili two nights ago. He essentially told Kili that I wasn’t worthy of being with him. You know, the whole commoner and royalty thing. Not only that, but there’s the fact that I’m a human and Kili is a dwarf. He’ll outlive me by ages. Both of those are completely fair statements. He had every right to tell me that. That doesn't change the fact that he's meddling in our relationship. Because Kili told me them and they broke my heart.

You heard it here. For the first time in my life, I’m truly heartbroken by what a guy said to me. It was so unfair, the way Thorin was speaking about me. Almost like I was the dirt on the bottom of his shoes. It isn't fair. I don't want the throne or care about it. I just want him. I think that I really do love him, Harley. I’m trying to push my feelings aside for him but it’s so damn hard.

It's impossible for me to think of him as anything but a romantic partner at this point. Especially since he keeps trying to talk to me and get me to have another conversation with him. We danced; romantic as hell. We almost kissed; also romantic as hell. The whole thing is so movie-drama stupid. I need to step away from him. But I can’t. I just keep thinking about my feelings for him. It’s too hard to pretend that we’re just friends again. I think that I can eventually do it, but it’s going to be so hard.

If I have to see him fall in love with Tauriel… I can’t even imagine what that would be like. I’m praying that she might not be here. I can’t stand to see it. I've never had to deal with a guy I love fall in love with someone else. I can't watch that.

Bilbo and Lady Galadriel think that I should still give it a shot. The other dwarves seem to be watching us closely. I'm guessing that they have bets going for when we'll get together, like little kids. But you should have heard Thorin. He’s bound and determined that, even though I do love Kili (he said it himself), there is someone better suited for the throne. I guess that he's right about that. I know that Thorin loves his nephew and thinks that this is best. Maybe it is. I just can't drag him down.

Not to mention I'll die eventually. I'll die way before he does. This entire thing is so terrible. As hard as it might be, I know that it’s time to let him go. I just wish that we could have gotten more time to enjoy whatever it was we had before this. I wish that I could have had a brief relationship. Or maybe this is for the best. End it before it was even harder to let go.

Everyone’s finally gotten what they were always so curious to see, I guess. Me, heartbroken, over a guy. A guy that I wasn’t even involved with. Even you said something about it once before. I know you didn't want to see me hurt though. I’ll manage this. Don't worry about me. Eventually, I’ll just get over him. When that’ll happen, I’m not really sure. But I refuse to be upset over this forever. I just have to get this off of my mind. I have to think about my mission to save him. Maybe that’ll be easier if I can be objective to him.

Who am I kidding? This will never be objective. Especially considering I have to save his life. How the hell can I manage this? Maybe I’ll get lucky and we can work something out without Thorin knowing. But I’ve never really been the hopeful type, have I?

Damn it, I miss you. I hate you with all of my being, brat, but I really do miss you. So much so that I’m writing letters to myself that I know can never get sent. Who knows? Maybe you know somehow that I want to talk to you. Maybe you know that I miss getting to complain about my day to you as I barge into your room and ignore the fact that you want to be left alone. You know, I really could use that bucket of Ben and Jerry’s we ate after your breakup with Josh. I never thought I'd miss ice cream so much.

In the meantime, keep your head up, kid. I’m proud of whatever it is I know you’re doing. Here’s hoping you’re proud of me too. You’d be amazed if you could see me. I killed a Warg a few days ago! It was awesome. But running from them really killed me. It was exhausting. I made it this far and haven’t been eaten yet. Although I did get nicked in the forearm with an arrow the other day. About as unpleasant as you'd expect. Elladan healed me. It'll leave a cool scar, at least.

Since I know what you’d be saying (Go for it! Be damned with Thorin Oakenshield says!) I’ll give it a try. For you. We’ll see how much disappointment my heart can take.

Get good grades, asshole.

Hopefully, I’ll see you soon.

Love always,  
Leah.

As big of a pain in the ass as my little sister was, I missed her so desperately. I missed those days when the two of us had a chance to talk to each other about whatever it was we needed. I let out a breath and closed my journal, placing it down on the bedside table. I covered it with my clothes and curled back up in bed. I found that I was exhausted, even though I didn't really do much of anything today. The most I did was go on a brief walk or my quick dance with Kili. I so desperately wished that I was still dancing with Kili, that final moment of peace we'd had.

What was he thinking right now? Did he wish that he was with me right now? Did he want to be dancing with me again? I hoped he did. I wanted to hope that he was as distracted from his thoughts of me as I was of my thoughts of him. Even though that was a little bit of a nasty thought to have. As I closed my eyes, imagining our dance earlier in the evening, I could only think of one thing. Even though we weren't supposed to be together, I couldn't ever imagine myself with anyone else, no matter the consequences.


	12. Chapter Twelve

In the morning I didn't bother immediately getting up. Instead, I laid in my fluffy bed, trying to convince myself that it was a bad idea to spend another day in bed. It was time for me to get up and interact with the others after having already been absent for an entire day. I let out a soft breath as I stared up at the painted ceiling. I was definitely still upset about the events of the last two days but I supposed that I was slowly getting around to feeling better. At least a little less depressed. I was not going to let this one thing take over my entire life.

The entire thing with Kili was quite upsetting as I was sure most situations like this were. But that didn't mean that I had to mope around and sulk all day long. I was going to get up and start feeling much better about myself. The first thing that I was planning on doing was trying to learn magic. I was going to hunt down Lady Galadriel and ask her for her assistance in learning magic. She clearly believed in me. It all began with me trying to get over the events of the previous few nights. Getting over what I couldn't control. It was time to straighten up.

In my entire life, I had never let a guy hurt me this much. Not to say that Kili had wanted to hurt me. I knew he hadn't. There had never been a breakup that had affected me this much. There was no way that I was going to let a guy that I wasn't even technically romantically involved with hurt me this much - whether or not he had intended to hurt me. I was going to be just fine. I just needed a few days to mourn the loss of our relationship and then I would get over it. Yes. That would work. I would just force myself to get over it.

After all, we hadn't even known each other for more than a few months. How hard could it be to get over someone I hadn't even known that long ago? It couldn't have been that hard. I had never even thought about the idea of heartbreak. It had never really occurred to me. It seemed stupid to have to risk your heart to potentially wind up with someone. It made no sense to me. I rolled my eyes at myself and flipped from the bed, starting to get ready for the day. I was just planning on avoiding Kili for the next few days to try and forget my feelings for him.

At least if I didn't see him much that would make it easier. Out of sight, out of mind. Standing at the floor length mirror in the bathroom, I began gathering some of my more casual clothes. Just a black tunic and a pair of light beige pants. I thought about going barefoot but I had a feeling the elves wouldn't appreciate that. So I slipped on my boots. I braided my hair back simply and brushed my teeth before gathering my dirty things and dropping them in a pile for the elves to collect later. Without giving myself a moment to think better of it I turned and headed from the room.

My fingers were nervously working through some of the strands on the end of my tunic as I walked through the halls. It took me a few minutes to pass through the entry hall and ultimately out into the dining hall. I was the last one to arrive. I spotted all of the dwarves at the table and smiled slightly. Even Bilbo and Gandalf were there. In the early morning, I noticed that the dwarves were being slightly quieter. They must have been tired. I noticed that Fili and Kili were sitting together and I swallowed a lump in my throat. I couldn't sit with him right now.

Not after I had just made myself a promise to avoid him for at least a few days. I stepped out of the shadows and headed out toward the table. It was easy to notice that everyone fell silent as I walked in. I blushed slightly, determined to keep looking ahead of me. I wasn't going to let them know that I was uncomfortable. Clearly, they were all quite interested in what had happened last night. I walked over to the table and took a seat in between Fili and Bofur. The action didn't go unnoticed by the others. I tried desperately to ignore the put-out look on Kili's face that I didn't sit next to him.

We were only in the dining hall having breakfast for a while before Bofur turned to me. "Morning, Leah," he greeted.

"Hi, Bofur," I replied, trying to look as cheerful as possible.

"How are you feeling?" Bofur asked.

That's right... I had almost forgotten that I'd asked Elladan to tell the others that I wasn't feeling well yesterday to explain my absence. "Much better. Thanks for asking. I guess it was a little twenty-four-hour bug," I explained.

"A what?" Oin asked, leaning over to us.

Apparently, they hadn't even heard of that one before. I didn't feel like explaining it to them but I knew that I had to. "Twenty-four-hour bug. It's a saying back in Rohan. It means a stomach sickness that only lasts for a day. Usually pretty disgusting and not very fun to have to deal with," I explained as vaguely as possible.

"But you're feeling better?" Bombur asked.

"Much. Thank you for asking," I told him.

To be fair, I was starting to feel slightly better. But that was only because I wasn't looking in Kili's direction. The moment I looked at him I was sure to upset myself again. The air stilled slightly and I turned back to see that it was because Thorin had walked into the dining room. I had barely noticed that he wasn't there when I'd walked in. I had been glad that he wasn't there. I looked down from what was sure to be an interesting conversation with Balin to stare at my plate. I didn't want to meet Thorin's eyes. My movement was obviously noticed by everyone else at the table but I didn't care.

Thankfully a few seconds later the conversations struck back up. I let out a deep breath. I was incredibly grateful that people were no longer looking at me. Instead, they were all wandering back and forth during the breakfast, chitchatting each other. I spoke to just about everyone during our long meal but I was careful not to speak to Kili or Thorin over the hour or so we were together. There was no doubt that the others noticed, but I didn't care. It was easier for me to do it that way. It wasn't strange for me not to talk to Thorin, but it was extremely abnormal to not speak with Kili.

As we all shifted around the table, I eventually found myself sitting next to Oin. I had always enjoyed talking to him. He wasn't always the nicest person in the world but his bitterness did crack me up at times. He was perhaps the most well-read member of the bunch. I was glad to be able to casually speak to him about how much he knew about magic. It turned out that he didn't know much about it - which didn't surprise me - but he did know that people were born with it. It was very rare to be able to learn magic. I was left with even more questions than I'd started with.

The only reason we'd broken our chat was that he'd started asking me questions about why I was so curious about magic. For some reason, I didn't want people to know about the book. So I'd moved onto Gloin. He was almost always outspoken and today he was talking to me about his wife which was just mildly painful to listen to. But I did love hearing about someone who was in love. It was nice and peaceful. Apparently, she had a glorious beard. I laughed at the sight of a photo of Gimli. It was definitely hard not to tell him that one day his son would be the best friend of Legolas, an elf.

If I managed to live that long and stay in Middle Earth, I would have to see how Gloin reacted to news of the Quest of the Ring. After a little while, I'd headed over to Balin and listened to him tell me about his own life in Erebor before Smaug had attacked. It was definitely interesting and a nice break from our constant moving around - getting to sit and chat and get to know each other. It was slower paced and I loved it. Plus Balin was always nice to talk to. He knew a touch about magic and he told me that a wizard would be the best person to talk to if I had questions.

Much to my own surprise, after being called off by Thorin to discuss potentially restocking supplies from the elves, Balin left my side and was replaced by Dwalin. As always I was a little nervous to be so close to him. He still seemed to hate me as he had since we had met. But he was being relatively nice to me today. Maybe he knew I was upset. We had a very brief conversation about different sword techniques. He walked off into the middle of the floor to show me his own before telling me a little bit about the first battle he was involved with.

It ended up being the longest conversation we'd ever had. Afterward, I had gone and looked through some more of Ori's drawings as we chatted back and forth. I smiled at most of them right up until I landed on a recently drawn one of my dance with Kili last night. I let out a soft breath at the sight of it. It looked like it was just before the end of the dance. We were tucked together, our lips mere inches apart. We were staring at each other's mouths, clearly so desperate to kiss each other. Ori had very quietly offered me to keep it. I'd taken him up on it.

Was it a smart idea to keep it? Probably not. But it was going to be a reminder of the romance that I almost had at one point. Embarrassed from what had just happened, I folded up the picture, thanked Ori for the drawing, and walked off to his brother. Dori was definitely one of the most pessimistic members of the bunch and it made me feel just slightly better. At least there was someone who felt even worse about things then I did. For some reason, his morose point of view on life made me feel slightly better.

Maybe it was because it was nice to hear all of the other things that were wrong in the world that made me feel like my problems with Kili really didn't matter at all. When I walked away from Dori, I was almost immediately pushed into his other brother. Dori was sitting on the edge of the veranda and I smiled as I took a seat with him. I'd laughed harder than I had in a while when he'd told me that he was actually in trouble with the law back in the Blue Mountains. He looked quite pleased to have made me smile. But I couldn't believe that he was actually unlawful.

Unfortunately, he didn't tell me what he was in trouble with the law for. I had a feeling that it was for stealing or something like that. Bofur wound up being the one person who had really managed to make me smile. He brought me up on the table and forced me to dance along with him. It was the first time I had really let out a deep belly-laugh since everything with Kili. I noticed that he was watching me with a dark gaze. I recognized that hint of desire in his eyes. Embarrassed, and a little eager to keep showing off, I gently stepped down from the table and asked Bofur to keep going without me.

His eyes followed me well after I had stepped off of the dining table and I continued walking, so desperately hoping that he would eventually go back to whatever he had been doing before. I headed back toward the table and smiled when I saw that Bombur was sitting there, eating the remnants of the breakfast. He spent most of our time together complaining about what the food was that they had in Rivendell. He definitely missed the food that they had back in the Blue Mountains. I didn't blame him. I was getting a little sick of eating vegetarian.

After a few minutes of sitting by myself, Fili walked up to my side. "Good morning," he greeted.

"Morning," I replied. "What can I do for you?"

Fili didn't bother beating around the bush. "Care to tell me what happened the other night?"

"Pardon?" I asked, surprised that he'd gotten straight to the point.

Fili gave a quick nod to Kili, who was in a conversation with Dwalin but still appeared to be upset that I was avoiding him. "It is no secret that Kili is your most trusted confidante here, Leah," Fili pointed out.

"Don't take offense to that. I love you all," I said quickly.

Fili merely smiled. "That's not quite what I meant. Although I do know that you love me more. You simply have to hide your true feeling from Kili to spare him," he teased, puffing his chest out.

Despite everything, I laughed loudly. Kili's eyes almost instantly shot over to me. I turned back quickly as I stopped giggling. "Yes, you've figured me out," I said, letting out a deep breath.

Fili grinned for a moment before his face dropped. "Might we walk for a moment?"

"Us and your brother?" I asked, discreetly throwing my head back toward Kili.

"Just us," Fili answered.

After a moment of hesitation, I said, "All right."

We both stood from the side table we had taken a seat at a few moments prior and walked off. As my heel clicked against the marble floors I knew the others were now watching us. I could both see and feel Kili's eyes boring into the back of my head as I walked off with his brother. He must have been aggravated that I wasn't even talking to him. I did feel slightly bad for leaving him without another word but I also knew that this was the right thing to do. It was easier for me this way. Fili walked us out toward a veranda at the edge of the dining hall and I leaned up against the railing, turning to face him.

There was no way that I was going to speak first. I wanted to make sure that I was right about whatever it was he wanted to talk to me about. "Why don't you talk to me about what's going on?" Fili finally offered.

"Would there even be a reason for me to ask you what you're talking about?" I asked.

"No. We all know what's going on. We all know that something's happened between you and Kili," Fili told me. I let out a soft breath. I had been so hoping that no one would really care. "I spoke to him about it last night and he admitted that Thorin had asked the two of you to stay apart."

It should have been obvious that Kili would go to his brother with his problems. "How many people know?" I asked.

Might as well have just gotten the shock over with. "The entire thing? I'd assume just the two of you," Fili said. That was at least the slightest bit relieving. Our conversations had been personal and a little embarrassing. "Thorin and I likely know the most out of everyone else. But we've all noticed that things have been quite odd between the two of you over the last few days."

As it turned out, the dwarves were ten times as bad of gossips as anyone else was. I'd had a feeling that they would be talking about our new relationship. That didn't surprise me. I supposed that I would have wanted to talk about it if I was watching it too. But now things were getting worse. It had become painfully obvious that something was wrong with us. But were they really just talking about us? Damn them... I hated being at the center of the romantic drama. I had always found those people to be so annoying. Apparently now I was one of them.

"Here I thought that I was being so sneaky," I said jokingly.

But the smile didn't quite reach my eyes. "In confined quarters like this with only so few people speaking to each other, word travels fast," Fili explained. He was right about that. Any time there was something new happening in the company it was only a short period of time before everyone knew. "You've called us all gossips before. You're not quite wrong about that."

Letting out a soft breath, I paced back and forth over the veranda a few times. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say, Fili. I got the message loud and clear. Stay away from your brother," I said blandly.

Fili sighed. "I feared Thorin might say something about the two of you."

"Your fears were warranted," I answered.

We stood in silence for a moment as Fili grabbed my arm and pulled me to stop in front of him. I stopped and looked him straight in the eyes. "Kili told me everything. At least everything that he was willing to tell me," Fili said.

"You're his brother. I'm not surprised," I said quietly. Fili nodded thoughtfully. "Here to tell me that he was right to say what he did?"

"I'm here to tell you that I'm throwing you my support," Fili said.

My head snapped up to his. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

No one seemed to want the two of us to be together. So, why did Fili? "Because I love Kili. I've always wanted him to find a woman he loved. Of course, we always hoped that it would be a dwarf woman. But we don't always choose who we love. Sometimes we just... fall. What I've wanted more than anything is for Kili to genuinely love someone. He's found someone he genuinely loves and I do believe the feelings are reciprocated," Fili told me. I remained silent. I didn't need to say anything. He knew. "He deserves to be happy. You both do."

In the end, I supposed that Fili was right. Everything he was saying made perfect sense. I knew that he loved Kili. Both from seeing it with my own two eyes and from having watched the movies. It was always obvious that the two brothers had loved each other. It was also obvious that they had always wanted each other to find some happiness. That seemed to so often mean finding someone they loved. Fili knew both his brother and myself well enough to know that our feelings for each other were real. But even with those feelings, neither one of us were happy.

"Happiness doesn't seem to be my forte," I answered honestly.

"It should be," Fili said fiercely. We were silent for a moment as I shifted awkwardly. I wished that I could be happy with Kili. I genuinely did. "Would you oppose to me speaking to Thorin?"

"About?" I asked curiously. "Thorin doesn't want to change his mind. He doesn't care to, at least."

"Not right now," Fili admitted. "But I see it."

"What?" I asked.

What could he see? That we were upset? Everyone saw that. "The guilt that he's feeling over what he's asked the two of you to do," Fili said. Did he feel guilty? I hadn't seen that. He had only seemed awkward. Not guilty. "It won't take long. Trust me."

A small smile appeared on my face. "Thanks, Fili."

"You're welcome."

The two of us wandered out into the gardens slightly. I knew that Kili would be wondering what had happened between us but I couldn't bring myself to care about it right now. We would have a conversation at some point, but it couldn't be right now. I had to get my thoughts straight first. After that, I supposed that we could figure out what came next. Fili wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I smiled, tucking my head against his neck. It was what I imagined life would have been like had Robbie lived past his childhood.

We stood, watching the sunrise together for a while when something dawned on me. "Can I ask you something?

Fili nodded. "Of course."

"Why are you so invested in this?" I asked.

He didn't owe either one of us anything. But here he was, ready to fight for our relationship. Was it just for his brother? "Because I care for you both. I love my brother with all my heart. I've come to care very deeply for you as well," Fili admitted. I smiled earnestly. I cared very deeply for him as well. "Seeing the two of you winding up together would make me extraordinarily happy."

"That's a very nice thought," I said quietly.

"Give it some time," Fili said.

"Of course."

But time was something we didn't have. In a matter of months, they would be dead. Kili could have been in love with someone else. This entire thing was a complete mess. But sometimes messes were fun. This wasn't fun right now but there was a chance that it could have been... I had done the secret relationship thing when I was a teenager. Maybe it could be kind of fun again. We exchanged another smile as Fili brought me into a long hug. I sank into his arms as he tightened them slightly. If I didn't have Kili right now I was very grateful to at least have Fili.

Fili's P.O.V.

The moment that Fili had released Leah, he pressed a kiss against her cheek and walked off. She looked incredibly sad. It seemed to have been so long since he'd seen a genuine smile on her face. That was just to say how happy Leah and Kili made each other. Fili turned back from the gardens and headed out toward the patio where Thorin was standing. Leah had already headed back inside. He knew that she was trying to avoid Kili's lingering gaze. Fili could only assume that his brother was trying to find a way to get Leah to talk to him.

"Uncle," Fili greeted.

Thorin turned back and smiled at his older nephew. "Fili," he greeted. Fili didn't return the smile. Thorin's face almost automatically dropped. "You look like you have something to say."

"Yes, I do have something to say," Fili confirmed.

Thorin nodded. "Go on."

"What have you done?" Fili asked sharply. He just wanted to get to the point and force his uncle to see that what he'd done was wrong. Thorin merely stared at his nephew. "Uncle, I love you and Kili more than anything and that's why I can sit in silence no longer. He deserves to be happy with whoever it is that makes him that way. What should you care if it's Leah that makes him happy?"

Thorin stared at Fili for a long time. "Kili sent you?" he finally asked.

"He said nothing. I pushed him to tell me what had happened and he did. I came here on my own free will," Fili answered truthfully.

Thorin paced around the veranda for a while. Fili could tell that he was trying to come up with an answer. "You're young, Fili."

Fili's face automatically dropped into a scowl. Thorin might have been able to bully Kili, but his older brother would not allow it. "Do not tell me the same thing you've told him. I know my brother and I love him. But I also know how naive he can be sometimes," Fili snapped angrily. Thorin's brows knitted in aggravation. "What's the real reason that you refuse to allow Kili and Leah to be together?"

There was no way that the only reason Thorin wasn't allowing Leah and Kili to be together was just that she wasn't a dwarf. Fili knew that Thorin had many old-fashioned ideals. He knew that his uncle would have preferred to have Kili marry a dwarf woman who came from a respectable family. Likely someone of some royal bloodline from one of the other noble houses. But that wasn't enough of a reason. Leah was a woman but it was clear that she was in love with Kili. He at least deserved to know the real reason that they were being kept apart.

"I love you, Fili, but this is not your business," Thorin finally said quietly.

"This is my business. Everything that has to do with him also has to do with me," Fili told his uncle sharply. That was his baby brother. He deserved to know what was going on. Thorin stared at his nephew in surprise. "Look around if that's not enough. Kili and Leah's new avoidance of each other has become the talk of the company. Everyone's noticed. Their tenseness has begun to rub off on the others whenever they're in a room together."

Another long silence passed where the two of them stared at each other. Fili had bowed to his uncle's demands many times before. It hadn't ever bothered him. He was his king. He had never worried about following him before. But this was different. This had nothing to do with the journey to reclaim Erebor. This was about the future of two people who loved each other - nothing more and nothing less. That was what he needed Thorin to realize. This was about them. No one else had a reason or right to get involved.

"They will learn to get along with each other again soon enough," Thorin said evenly.

There wasn't a hint of emotion in his voice. Fili frowned. This wasn't about them getting along. It was about them getting along again... "You don't understand what you've done. Thorin... Kili is in love with her," Fili said quietly.

"They're both young," Thorin answered. "They don't understand -"

"Just because you don't understand love doesn't mean that they don't!" Fili bellowed before thinking better of it.

Thorin's face dropped before being replaced by an infuriated glare. Fili shifted guiltily slightly. Of the many things he'd meant to say, that hadn't been one of them. He knew that Thorin did understand love. He knew that his uncle loved him. He knew that his uncle loved everyone in the company. But that didn't mean that he'd ever known love the way that Kili currently knew it. Fili knew that he had made a mistake with his words. He knew that he had infuriated his uncle. He hadn't meant to say what he had, but he was angry with the situation and Thorin's refusal to listen.

"I'm sorry, Uncle. You know that I spoke out of term," Fili admitted quietly, looking down at the ground. Thorin nodded very slowly. "I know that you know love. You feel it for all of us and all of those who remain in the Blue Mountains. But you have never known a romantic love. I haven't either. But I know enough to know that sometimes people fall fast. Those two clearly fell fast and hard."

Thorin's face remained impassive. "This is not up for discussion."

"Then tell me one thing," Fili said in annoyance. Thorin stared at him for a moment before nodding. "What is your major problem with the two of them being together?"

"There isn't just one," Thorin reasoned.

"Tell me," Fili goaded.

"There is so much wrong with their relationship. She isn't a dwarf. Kili is one of the Crown Princes of Erebor," Thorin explained.

That wasn't nearly a good enough reason to keep them apart. "You know that I'm the heir to the throne. It's my job to one day take the throne and provide suitable heirs. The day will come that I do that once we're settled in Erebor," Fili explained.

One day Fili would provide heirs to the kingdom after he wed a dwarf woman. That wasn't Kili's job. It never had been. "And if something is to happen to you?" Thorin asked. Fili didn't answer. He supposed that he didn't have an answer for that. "She's a mortal woman. If you can't accept my preference of him having a dwarfish woman on the throne, remember that he will outlive her by decades."

Yes. Her death would likely destroy him. But they could have so many years of happiness together before they got to that point. "That's their choice to make. Not yours. If they want to appreciate those seventy years or so that they'll have together, let them. Let them love each other in the time they have. They know what will happen in the future," Fili explained. They were no fools. They knew the difference in lifespan. They had already accepted that. "They will deal with it when the time comes."

Perhaps it wouldn't be the happiest ending in the world. Kili could potentially live a hundred years without the woman he loved. But that would be their choice. They could enjoy those many decades they could have together. Fili stared at his uncle in irritation for a long time. He couldn't believe that Thorin didn't understand that he was being unfair to Kili. His brother deserved to have someone in his life that genuinely loved him. There was no doubt that it was Leah. Fili knew that he wasn't going to get his uncle to see the sense, so he decided to try guilting him into it.

"I hope you're content breaking your nephew's heart," Fili said tonelessly.

Something flashed in Thorin's eyes. "The last thing I wanted to do was break his heart."

Fili genuinely did believe that. But it didn't change things. "Then you should have thought more about what you did," he said pointedly.

"You think that I didn't take a long time to think about what I did?" Thorin barked at his nephew. Fili assumed that he had thought about it for a long time, but he had ultimately made the wrong choice. "I did, Fili. It doesn't make me happy to have to do this. But I must be a King as well as your uncle. I do not approve of Miss Ambrose."

"Just because she's a mortal woman?" Fili asked.

"She doesn't hold the regalia of someone who would hold a royal title," Thorin said.

"Spoken like a true king. Not someone who loves their nephew," Fili said coldly.

His words might have been cold but they were the truth. "You know that is a lie. This was not enjoyable for me," Thorin told his nephew. Fili had a feeling that he was telling the truth, but it didn't change things. It was still a terrible thing he had done. "But I knew that it was something I had to do. I had to stop this before it went further. It was the right thing to do. My only regret is that I hurt Kili."

Fili very slowly shifted back towards the dining hall. "Then do the right thing, Uncle. Give Kili your support," Fili said. Thorin didn't give the slightest indication that he had heard or understood what he'd said. "You know that he won't do anything without your consent. I'll leave you to your thoughts. I do hope that you make the right choice."

This wasn't something that Fili could bully or talk his uncle into. He knew that much. He had known Thorin long enough. Fili knew that this was something that Thorin was going to have to figure out all on his own. He wasn't ever going to be able to order his uncle to do the right thing. Besides being the king, Thorin was too stubborn to ever listen to someone. Fili would merely have to wait and hope that his uncle would realize that the important thing right now was letting them be happy. This entire journey was already about the throne. Their relationship didn't have to be.

Leah's P.O.V.

It had ended up being a very quiet day, which was something that I had so desperately needed after the past few days of a constant flurry of activity. Both with Kili and just with all of my lingering thoughts. Trying to keep me from thinking about Kili and what was happening between us, I spent much of my day reading in the abundant sunlight. The dwarves and Bilbo had left me alone, clearly realizing that I wasn't very happy right now. I was very grateful that they had at least done that much for me. I wasn't in the mood for chatting and pretending to be happy around them.

For most of the day, I had settled with reading my book of magic from Lady Galadriel. Not that I felt that it was doing much for me. I really didn't understand anything of it. Mostly because it wasn't even in a language I understood. Was it in... Elvish? I'd never felt as stupid as I did being in Middle Earth. I was more memorizing it than anything else since I really wasn't sure what the hell I was supposed to be doing to make it work. It was nearing dinnertime when Balin appeared at my side. He took a seat on the edge of the bench I was sitting on. I dropped my legs to give him room to sit.

"Miss Leah," Balin greeted.

"Hi, Balin," I responded, barely looking up from the book.

"Good afternoon, my dear."

It was enough to tell me that he wanted my undivided attention. I glanced up from the book to find him giving me a lingering stare. Yes, he wanted something. "Afternoon," I said slowly, closing the book.

"Enjoying Rivendell?" Balin asked.

A lead-in to another conversation. "I think it's one of the prettiest places I've ever been," I said honestly. "How about you?"

Balin glanced up at the trees. "It does hold a charm about it."

"But you don't like being here," I pieced together.

It seemed that very few of the dwarves genuinely liked being here. "It is strange to stand in a land full of elves when so long ago they refused to offer their aid. Now they are here to assist us in our journey," Balin told me.

"I thought that it was Lord Thranduil's elves who didn't come to your aid?" I asked curiously.

"It was they who stood on the edge of the mountain and turned their gazes. But Lord Elrond offered no help either," Balin said.

That was a relatively unfair way of looking at things. "Did it ever occur to you all to maybe ask them for help?" I asked. Balin merely stared at me. Did they really not understand the whole prospect of actually going to someone and asking for help? They were too proud for their own good. "You asked Lord Thranduil and he ignored your pleas. I can understand that animosity. But did you ever ask for Lord Elrond's help? Did Thorin?"

Balin remained silent. I took it as his acknowledgment that they never had asked the elves of Rivendell for help. I hoped that I might have provided just a little bit of insight into their relatively unfair bias against Lord Elrond's elves. Had they really done anything wrong? They had never been asked for help. I wouldn't have come to help someone unless they asked. Who could blame Lord Elrond to not come to the rescue? They weren't his kin and they hadn't even asked. As much as I liked the dwarves, they were wrong in their hatred of all elves.

Balin was quiet for a long time after my comment before finally saying, "You are a very interesting woman, Leah Ambrose."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or insult," I told him.

"Perhaps a bit of both."

I let out a soft laugh. "Thanks for being honest."

He didn't have to completely like me. I hadn't expected all of them to like me. "I can see why Kili has become so taken with you," Balin said. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I really didn't want the conversation to go there. "You both have an interesting way of looking at the world. Perhaps it's the wonder of youth that we so often forget about as we age. It's a cruel thing, time."

"Fights against everyone, I suppose," I said vaguely, trying to direct the conversation away from Kili.

"It does," Balin responded.

The way that he was staring at me was enough to tell me that I wasn't going to get out of this conversation without mentioning Kili. I should have known that someone other than Thorin and Fili would want to talk about it. Actually, I had forced the conversation with Thorin. Fili had only brought it up because Kili was his brother. I had been so hoping that the others would mind their business. I smiled tersely at Balin, wondering how I could go about talking about this without making myself look like a bumbling fool all over again.

"I like to think that I’ve become friends with most of the members of the company.

Balin nodded his consent. "I do believe that everyone enjoys you in their own ways - some more than others," Balin said.

Of course. He meant Kili. But I wasn't going to make it that easy. "Read: Thorin," I teased.

Much to my surprise, Balin smiled. I genuinely hadn't thought he would find my sense of humor even moderately amusing. "It has not gone unnoticed that you and Master Kili have been avoiding each other," Balin finally said bluntly.

I swallowed thickly. I should have known that this was coming. "Oh… Balin… I'm not sure that I'm comfortable talking about this," I said honestly.

"It's only a question. You need not to answer anything," Balin said comfortingly.

Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad to talk to a relatively objective third party. Thorin loved his nephew but he also loved the throne and wanted to do what was best for Erebor. It shouldn't have been surprising that he was able to put aside his feelings for his nephew to think of what was the best for the kingdom. Fili also loved his brother. He, of course, wouldn't care about the throne. All he cared about was whether or not his brother was happy. At least Balin, while loyal to Thorin, was also mature enough to see both sides of an argument and give his honest opinion.

"Do you know what happened?" I asked awkwardly.

Please don't know everything... "Some of it," Balin said. I let out a relieved breath. "Thorin has only mentioned his concerns and that he was ready to speak to both of you about it."

"Well, he did," I answered.

"How do you feel about it?" Balin asked.

"Do you really want to hear?" I shot back.

He didn't seem to care much. "We all care very deeply for Kili. That means that we care for this situation," Balin explained gently. "We can all see just different he has been the past few days."

"Guess it didn't really occur to me that everyone else would notice," I muttered stupidly.

"We might be old but we are observant," Balin teased.

I smiled gently. "How much do you know?"

"Not much. Thorin had expressed his concern about your relationship with Kili," Balin told me. I figured that Thorin had mentioned something to either Dwalin or Balin - his most trusted advisors - before having said anything to Kili. "We all noticed when Kili vanished for the day and it did not go unnoticed that you were absent most of the next day. The two of you have avoided each other quite a bit over the past few days. It's been easy to put together that there was a conversation had between yourselves."

"You're right about that," I told him. I might as well have just admitted the truth. They clearly knew and maybe this would get them to stop gossiping about what had happened. "Thorin told Kili that he didn't want the two of us to be together. Kili then relayed the message to me." Balin merely stared at me. "That's the entire thing."

"That's it, is it?" Balin asked suspiciously.

"Yeah," I answered.

"How do you feel about that?" Balin asked.

It felt like I was in a psychologists office. "Not exactly well," I admitted quietly.

"Tell me," Balin goaded.

"It's a little embarrassing," I whispered.

The truth was that the entire thing was incredibly embarrassing. "You should know something," Balin told me. I nodded at him to continue. "I am old but I was a youth once upon a time. We've all had troubles in our lives. It helps to have someone to listen."

Perhaps it would be like having my grandfather to talk with. My real-life grandfather had died just a few years after I was born. I remembered him perfectly well and still loved him to this day, but I had never really gotten the chance to grow up with him around. Balin reminded me of him. And not just because of the white hair and beard. His mannerisms were the same. I smiled at Balin and leaned back against the stone bench, tucking my feet underneath myself and hoping that he wouldn't judge me.

"Before I came on the journey I was involved with someone," I admitted. I stopped long enough to gauge Balin's reaction but he gave me none.

"When telling stories, I find it helpful to listen to the entire thing," Balin said, smiling, sensing that I wanted him to say something before I continued.

I smiled awkwardly. "I've been involved with men before. Back in Rohan, it's kind of common to jump from relationship to relationship with little mind as to the future," I said worriedly. Balin merely nodded. "But when I came here I felt something for Kili immediately. I guess I thought that it was a physical attraction at first - which it is." Balin cleared his throat, giving me that 'don't-say-that-much-about-my-family-look.' "Sorry. Too much information. Over the months since the journey's started I've realized that it's something more. I really do care for him. More than I have anyone else. When he told me that Thorin mentioned his concerns it just... hit me..."

Balin was silent for a long time after I finished speaking. I looked down at the ground, worried that I had said too much. Maybe I had. It was a little stupid of me to admit to a very traditional man that I had been with a number of men before. Way to make yourself sound like a whore, Leah. Even the dwarves understood that concept. But the look on Balin's face wasn't judgemental. Actually, it was something a little closer to contemplative. Maybe I would get lucky and he wouldn't judge me for what I had done before coming here. Just as Kili hadn't.

"I've known Master Kili for his entire life," Balin finally said.

Not where I was expecting that conversation to go... "I know. He's mentioned," I said awkwardly.

What did Balin's long-standing relationship have anything to do with my relationship with him? "It's been obvious to us for many years that Kili has enjoyed a more relaxed way of life. He's never been too serious of his studies or his relationships," Balin told me. That had been clear to me from the moment I'd met him back in Bag End. "But he's changed since meeting you."

We were both silent for a long time. "How do you mean?" I finally risked asking.

"It's not something so easily explained. But he's always watching you. He keeps a close eye on you," Balin said. That was definitely something I had noticed. "He's more determined to reclaim Erebor. He listens to you." That wasn't always necessarily true. "He's more inclined to pay attention to the history of the Dwarfish race, considering he's been teaching you the history. There's something interesting about his personality since the two of you have met. He's different. But it's a good change."

Had I really managed to change Kili in the short time we had known each other? I didn't think so. He still seemed perfectly normal to me. But, to be fair, I hadn't ever known him before the journey. Maybe he really had changed. I knew that he was always watching out for me. I always saw him watching over me when we were on the road. Not that he would tell me that. He had always seemed determined to reclaim Erebor though. Had I added to that desire? I supposed that most of the time he did listen to me. He did teach me the history of Middle Earth, so was I making him a better student?

All reasonably good changes to make to someone's personality, but was I the reason for those changes to Kili's? "That's nice to hear," I said quietly.

"He's quite happy being around you," Balin added.

"I'm happy being around him too," I muttered.

"He wouldn't be the same if you left," Balin said.

At this point, I had a feeling I wouldn't be the same if I left either. Kili and the rest of the men here had made a profound effect on me. "You might not want me to be around for the rest of the journey but I'm not planning on leaving. This entire journey means more to me than whatever is going on between myself and Kili," I told him honestly.

Balin gave somewhat of a smile. "That's good to hear. It would be hard to see him without you," Balin said.

It would have been a lie if I had said that I'd understood what Balin was trying to get at with me. I could understand that he was telling me that he did see a positive difference in Kili's personality since we had met. But hadn't he just told me a few weeks ago that he had thought that I was hiding something from the company? Hadn't he told me that he didn't completely trust me? Now it seemed that he was telling me that he did trust me. At least, he trusted me with Kili's heart. Or maybe I was reading the entire thing completely incorrectly.

Finally, I decided to just go for it. "Are you throwing me your support?" I asked cautiously.

"No," Balin responded immediately.

At least he didn't try to spare my feelings. "Thanks for the honesty," I laughed.

Balin still didn't look like he regretted saying what he had. "Unfortunately, my dear, I do agree with Thorin's choice," Balin told me. I swallowed the lump in my throat. One more person who didn't think that we should be together. "But that doesn't mean that I enjoy watching the two of you the way you are." My head slowly raised from staring down at my lap. "I know you're upset. Both of you. If you genuinely love him, don't give up that easily."

If I hadn't been confused before, I was definitely confused now. I had no idea what he was trying to tell me to do. "I thought you weren't throwing me your support?" I asked stupidly.

Balin shook his head. "I'm not." So... what was that supposed to mean? "But everyone deserves a fair chance at love," Balin said, giving me a sly smile.

Sounded like it was a man speaking from experience. "Thank you, Balin," I said happily.

"You're welcome, Leah."

We sat in silence for a little while as I looked out to the waterfalls. It was lovely here. I knew that I should have minded my own business but there was something I couldn't wait to say. "Can I ask you something?" I said suddenly.

"Absolutely," Balin said.

"Did you ever love anyone?" I asked curiously and somewhat rudely.

If he was slightly offended, Balin didn't let it show. "Yes, I did."

I wasn't actually expecting him to admit the truth. "What happened?" I asked curiously.

As far as I could remember, Balin hadn't ever said anything about a wife. Was he married? I didn't think so. Balin let out a deep breath, staring out to the waterfalls. For a moment, I thought that he wouldn't answer me. I didn't blame him. I assumed that it wasn't a particularly happy memory for him. Not judging by the dark shadows that had managed to cross over his face. I thought about telling him not to worry about giving me the truth of what had happened but I ultimately decided against it. I had told them some dark truths about myself. Their turn.

Almost ten minutes passed before Balin found it in himself to tell me the truth. "In the end, I was torn between my love for her and my duty," Balin said, sighing deeply. I frowned at him. He had pushed her away. She hadn't been taken from him. "You see what I chose."

"Why?" I asked.

Balin took another deep breath. "Because for me it was all about the duty that I had to my kin," he said tonelessly. It sounded so... sad. "But that's not the same for everyone. What I chose is not necessarily what is right for everyone."

"Do you think that Thorin would cast Kili out if he chose me?" I asked quietly.

It was getting harder and harder to stay away from him. But I couldn't risk Kili's spot in his family. "No. Believe it or not, Thorin loves his kin above all else. He would never cast Kili out just because he chose against what he wished," Balin said. I let out a deep breath. That was one thing I didn't have to worry about. "But things would never be the same between them. There would be stress between them for the rest of their lives. Thorin wouldn't strip Kili of his title but there is a good chance that he would never entrust him with the duties he was supposed to perform."

The answer was clear. "His entire life would be different," I muttered.

"Yes," Balin confirmed. I let out a soft breath. That wasn't fair to Kili. "I believe that you must ask yourself if you can do that. Can you deal with the guilt of potentially changing his entire life and ostracizing his family?"

The truth was that I couldn't have lived with the guilt. Kili insisted that things wouldn't be different and that he didn't care about the throne, but I knew that he did. On some level, at least. Plus, I couldn't deal with the thought of potentially destroying his relationship with Thorin. I didn't speak for a long time. Without even experiencing that situation, I could already feel the guilt wracking through my entire body. I couldn't do that to him. It would break my heart. He would never have his same life. His uncle would never be able to look at him the same way he did right now.

No matter what choice I made, someone would be hurt. In the end, I seemed to be the one who got hurt either way. "It's not an easy situation," I mumbled.

"Love rarely is," Balin responded.

My face immediately reddened. "I don't know if it's... love," I said slowly.

"You will. In time," Balin said, resting a hand on my knee.

I smiled at him. "Thank you for the chat, Balin."

"You're welcome, my dear," Balin said. He had definitely given me a lot to think about during our conversation, as he usually did. Before I got the chance to respond, I heard a chorus of soft violins and harps begin playing. "I do believe that is the dinner orchestra starting up."

"Shall we?" I offered, rising to my feet.

"Thank you," Balin said, taking my hand.

The two of us walked back toward the dining hall together. I smiled at Balin while we walked. I really did enjoy talking to him on some level. He never exactly made me feel better about things, but he did give me an honest option, which was something I really needed. Not to be coddled. I seated myself in between Bofur and Bombur at dinner that night. They were definitely some of the most entertaining dwarves now that I was trying to avoid Kili. And Fili, for now. Mostly because I didn't want to know whether or not he had talked to Thorin. That would be another awkward conversation.

My limit was two for the day and I had already had them - with Fili this morning and Balin this afternoon. Dinner ended up being a pretty typical affair. The only difference was that I was still constantly trying to avoid Kili's lingering gaze. I knew that he wanted me to speak to him. I could see that he was quite upset that I had barely even looked his way throughout dinner. Fili appeared to be trying to get him to focus on something else which didn't seem to be working. Instead, Kili tried to catch my eye many times throughout the night but I refused to meet his. I couldn't look at him. Not right now.

About midway through dinner Elladan briefly walked over to my end of the table. He usually spent the evenings sitting with his father. Neither of his siblings had returned to Rivendell yet. Elladan had come over to check on me and ask if there was anything I needed. The dwarves looked less than fond of having him talk to me. I had merely told him that I wanted some warm tea before bed that he had agreed to bring. I was getting used to not having coffee. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kili looking quite annoyed that Elladan was near me again. He had never liked the elf.

Eventually, after many songs and a few hours of the dwarves destroying the halls of Rivendell, we all headed off to bed. Or, whatever it was that we were planning on doing in the late hours of the evening. Some of them headed to the fountains to take their baths. I had smiled and laughed at them. They needed it but I certainly didn't want to be there to see it. So, after a quick goodnight, I headed off to my own room. Plus, I would get the chance to read through that magic book a little bit more and see if I could learn anything. Right now I was next to useless with it.

Hoping that I wouldn't make Kili feel too bad about not speaking to him throughout the night, I'd looked right at him when I'd said goodnight. He looked like he was trying to respond but I'd brushed past him before he could. I knew that he was trying to get my attention, but I wasn't sure that I was ready to speak to him right now. Especially not when I knew that the dwarves were watching to see what would happen when we spoke. That would be a conversation to be had in private, not where all of them could overhear it.

Without looking back, knowing that seeing his face would only make me feel worse, I walked straight back to my room and threw it shut behind me. I quickly stripped off my day clothes and replaced them with a long tunic and a pair of cloth pants for bed. I had to admit, the dwarves definitely had good taste in pajamas. Once I was settled, I grabbed the magic book and perched myself in bed. It became very obvious to me very quickly that I wouldn't be able to figure it out on my own. I couldn't even pronounce half of the words in the book.

About an hour after I had returned to my room, there was a knock at the door. The person on the other side waited a few seconds before entering. I smiled when I saw that it was Elladan. "Your tea," he said.

He walked over and handed the warm mug to me. "Thanks," I said.

His gaze almost instantly fell to the open book in my lap. One perfectly-formed brow rose. "Lady Galadriel gave you that, did she?" Elladan asked curiously.

"Yeah," I said.

"Learning anything?"

"Not at the moment. I can't even pronounce half of the things in here."

"Might I offer you some advice?"

"Go for it."

A little bit of advice might have been exactly what I needed right now. "Magic rarely works when we aren't feeling right within our hearts," Elladan said, giving me a meaningful look. I stared at him dumbly. "Look deep inside yourself and find the strength to heal. Find your inner passion. Use that."

"I don't think I know what you mean," I mumbled.

Elladan smiled. "I think you do."

Of course. He was right. I did know what he meant. But I didn't want to say anything. So I merely told him, "Thanks for the tea."

Elladan smiled again. He knew that I would say something when I was ready. "You are welcome. Please come and see me if you need anything else," Elladan said.

Which meant I could talk to him about anything. "I will."

But I wouldn't. I didn't know what to say to him. I didn't know what to say to anyone. Not about this. I had never dealt with something like this before. I wanted Harley here. I needed someone to slap some sense into me. Or just listen and let me cry without laughing or rolling their eyes. Elladan gave a slight bow before turning to leave my room. I immediately went back to reading my book, desperate to forget about Kili. But I couldn't find it in myself to focus on the book. It wasn't working. I was still upset over what had happened with Kili.

So, I took a seat on the bed and tried to force myself to get over it. But that wasn't making any difference. Eventually, I couldn't just lay down and stare at the ceiling any longer. I rose to my feet and ran a bath for myself, throwing rose petals in the water to work as a perfume. I took a short bath relaxing in the warm waters as I drank my tea. Once I'd finished I drained the water and headed back into the bedroom. I could feel the warm air drifting in from the veranda. I quickly decided that I might feel a little bit better sitting outside. I always had liked the outdoors after all.

Pulling my pajamas back on, I gathered a few of my things, including the book of magic, and headed out to the veranda. There was a wrought-iron chair with floral patterns engraved into it that I took a seat in. It wasn't as comfortable outside but I did like the fresh air. I sat on the veranda for a long time, staring down at the book but not really reading. Instead, I was thinking about the journey. I knew that the dwarves remained in Rivendell for a little over two weeks. We would likely have just under two weeks left before moving on from Rivendell.

"Reading anything interesting?"

His voice had startled me so badly that I'd almost thrown the book of magic off the side of the veranda. I definitely hadn't been expecting Kili to be anywhere near my room right now. It was late. I'd thought that everyone was asleep already. I glanced off of the edge of the veranda to see that Kili was standing directly underneath the balcony. He was grinning up at me. I honestly should have figured that he would have come looking for me after I had completely blown him off during dinner. But I was hoping to have some time without him. I gave him a slightly awkward smile.

"Kind of. It's a book of magic," I called down to him, holding the book up.

Kili's eyebrow arched. "Since when were you interested in magic?"

"It was a gift from Lady Galadriel," I said, dropping the book back into my lap. "I don't know. It seems kind of worthless to me right now, but she seemed to think that I would have some use for it down the road."

"Does anyone in your family possess magic?" Kili asked thoughtfully.

"I don't think so. No one said anything about it, at least."

Kili was silent for a minute before saying, "May I come up?"

My stomach lurched at the thought. Did I want him up here? Absolutely. Was it a good idea to have him up here with no one else around? Absolutely not. I merely stared at Kili for a long time, searching for the right words. He looked so hopeful that I would say yes. I was a little hopeful that he would come up, no matter what I said. But I also knew that doing that would be a massive mistake. It was a bad idea. I had wanted to stay away from him to try and stave off my feelings for him. My heart was fluttering at the thought of him coming up.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" I finally asked thoughtfully.

"I want to help," Kili said.

"I don't -"

"Be a lot easier than shouting to each other."

"Or you could go away and leave me to my own devices," I said, instantly hating myself for it.

Kili's grin faded a little. "If you genuinely want that, I'll oblige," he said tonelessly.

But he must have known the truth. Of course, I didn't want him to leave. I wanted him right here. Idiot. "It's a bad idea," I argued weakly.

"What fun is something if it's a good idea?" Kili asked, grinning madly.

"Can't argue with that logic," I said, deciding to throw caution to the wind. "Come on up."

My decision was definitely not the smart one. But it was the one that I so desperately wanted. I wanted him to come up here and make me forget everything that had been happening lately. I stood from my chair and took a few steps back. I watched curiously as Kili grabbed the bottom of the trellis outside of my room and used it to scale up to my veranda. I smiled as he came level with me and slung a leg over the edge of the veranda, throwing himself over and joining me. I knew that it was a terrible idea to have him up here but I couldn't bring myself to care.

"What time is it?" I asked him curiously.

"Just past midnight, I believe," Kili answered.

So, why wasn't he asleep? "Can't sleep?" I asked.

Kili nodded. "Wasn't particularly interested in trying. Besides, I wanted to have a conversation with you and I knew that you wouldn't talk to me in front of everyone else," he said honestly.

"Right," I said.

There had to have been something else for me to say back to him. I knew I hadn't said enough. I knew that I should have said something else to him. He was right. I didn't want to talk to him around everyone else because I knew that they would all be trying to listen in on our conversation. It would have been terrible. That was a conversation that I needed to have with him and only with him. No one else needed to be involved. No more than they already were. At least right now no one else was around to try and eavesdrop.

"Is everyone else asleep?" I asked for the sake of conversation.

"Yes."

"Good." At least no one would come looking for either one of us. "You know they've been watching us so closely since… the other day," I muttered awkwardly. "I'm sick of feeling like I have to act like nothing has happened just to keep them from asking questions."

Kili shifted guiltily. "I'm sorry to have brought all of this upon you."

I shook my head. "It wasn't your fault. I fed into it. I talked to you as much as you talked to me. I knew both of our feelings were developing. I had a feeling, anyway," I muttered. I had known that this would eventually happen. I had known that we would eventually have to confront our feelings for each other. I just hadn't thought it would come to this. "And look at us. What's really changed?"

"You've barely spoken to me today. You deliberately ignored me at dinner," Kili pointed out.

"I wasn't trying to offend you," I whispered.

"I didn't think so."

We stood in silence for a few minutes as I perched myself up against the edge of the veranda. "It's like I said the other night. I need some time to look at you as a friend again and nothing more," I said, looking off to the stars.

"Would you like me to leave?" Kili asked quietly.

"If I'm being completely honest, no. I would like you to stay," I said.

Kili gave a slight grin. "All right."

"It's like I said before. In private, nothing's changed. We're exactly the same."

"You see, I don't think that's the truth. We aren't the same," Kili told me. I raised a brow. I didn't understand what that was supposed to mean. We were exactly as we used to be. "This thing between us... it's not unspoken anymore. We just haven't acted on it yet."

"It's probably for the best," I whispered.

"I disagree," Kili immediately said.

"Do you?" I asked curiously.

"I do."

We were back to the same old pattern. But he was right. Things were different. In private there was still that constant temptation to want to kiss him or do something more. It was getting stronger with each day. I finally turned from the stars to look at him and we remained staring at each other for a long time. That burning desire to kiss him was back. I even found myself thinking about moving toward him. Would it have been worth it? For just one kiss... No. I knew that it was the wrong thing. Balin's conversation had shown me that much. So, I took a step back.

"Maybe if things were different. Come on," I muttered, trying to push away from him. He regretfully took a step back from me. "This isn't what you came up here for."

Kili nodded. "Let me help you. Hand me the book," he said, changing the subject.

"Here."

He would likely be a lot better with the book of magic than I was. It had become evident to me very quickly that I didn't know how to use it at all and I never would. I needed to ask Lady Galadriel. I handed off the book of magic to Kili as we both walked back into my bedroom. I very briefly remembered to walk over and throw the deadbolt on the bedroom door. I knew that it might not have been my wisest choice but I couldn't help it. It was just in case. I took a seat on the edge of the bed as Kili placed himself on the chair near the balcony.

"Do you know magic?" I asked curiously, watching him flip through the book.

Kili slowly shook his head. "I don't know it but I've seen people practice it enough. Heard travelers talk about it. Figure I might know a little more than you do," he explained.

"I don't dispute that," I said.

He looked up long enough to smile. "Try a simple one." He scanned through the pages for a few more seconds before pointing to one. "This one."

He handed the book over to me and I glanced down. "What's this one for?" I asked.

The entire book was in some language that... definitely wasn't English. Elvish, I assumed. "It just creates a soft light from your hands," Kili explained. "Elea ie' dome."

"I can't even pronounce that," I said, baffled.

Kili smiled. "Say it slowly. Elea ie' dome."

"Elea... ie'... dome..." I repeated slowly. It sounded much less impressive and romantic when I had said it. I'd sounded a little bit like a toddler learning how to speak. "Okay, so how am I supposed to make the magic happen?" Kili almost immediately burst into a fit of giggles. My cheeks flared up in embarrassment. "Stop laughing at me!"

"You just sound so unsure of yourself," Kili said, still fighting back a smile. That was probably because I was unsure of myself. "Leah... you have to feel it inside of yourself."

"That doesn't make any sense!" I shouted, annoyed with him for laughing and myself for not understanding.

Kili shook his head. "Don't think of the spell so clinically. Stop thinking of it like you have to say the words out loud and exact," Kili said. I nodded at him. I had always had a slight problem with being a perfectionist. "Think about making that light. Think about what the light of your life is. Put that out there."

"Okay," I said.

That brought a new problem to the forefront of my mind. What was the light of my life? I wasn't quite sure. Definitely not schooling. Not my job. None of my friends - as much as I loved them. Not my parents. I didn't even want to say that it was Kili, because it wasn't. I cared for him deeply, that much was true, but I didn't care for him quite that much. So, who was it? That was when it dawned on me. My brother and my sister. My two siblings that I so desperately wished were here with me right now. But one was unreachable and the other was long dead.

"Are you thinking of something?" Kili asked after a long silence.

"Yes."

"Keep that in your mind. Try."

Keeping Robbie and Harley firmly in my mind, I said, "Elea ie' dome." It still sounded like a toddler learning to speak. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. I turned to Kili and smiled. "It was a good try."

"That was your first time. Try again," Kili insisted.

Taking another deep breath, I repeated, "Elea ie' dome."

Once more, nothing happened. I let out a deep breath and dropped my hands. "Are you thinking with your heart?" Kili asked.

"That doesn't make sense," I snapped.

"Look at me," Kili said.

But I didn't want to. My face was burning red with embarrassment as it normally did when I was annoyed with myself for not getting something right. It had always happened back at the gym when I'd gotten hit or fallen. I glanced up and met Kili's eyes from across the room. He rose to his feet and I sucked in a deep breath as he walked over and seated himself on the edge of the bed next to me. My entire body warmed with surprise and anticipation as he reached over and pressed his hand up against my chest. He never once let his eyes stray from mine.

"Feel it in yourself," Kili said quietly. "Try again."

Taking a deep breath, I whispered, "Elea ie' dome." That time something happened. There was a very brief golden glow that emanated from my hands for a brief second before dimming again. I shot up from the bed and turned to Kili. "Did you see that?"

Kili smiled proudly. "Very good. See? You did have it in you."

"Oh, I can't believe I did it!" I chirped happily.

Kili laughed. "What were you thinking of?"

"Robbie and Harley," I said honestly.

"I think they'd be very proud of you," Kili said.

"Are you?" I asked.

He smiled at me again. I flushed slightly. "I am so proud. You have magic in you," Kili said, pointing down to my hands. I grinned. I didn't know how to do it again, but all that mattered right now was that I had managed it once. In time I knew that I would be able to manage it again. "I think that's incredible."

"Do you think I'm a witch? Or... I don't know," I said awkwardly. This wasn't Harry Potter. All I knew was the five wizards that Gandalf had mentioned. "What do you call magical people?"

Kili shook his head. "Can't say that I know. Gandalf is the first one I've ever met. Now you, apparently." I smiled slightly as Kili finally looked away from me. I let out a soft breath. He glanced around the room before his gaze finally landed on the small bedside table to my right. I glanced over at it and blushed. It was the portrait Ori had done. "Did Ori do that?" Kili asked curiously.

"You honestly think I could?" I asked teasingly.

"You're quite a good artist, as a matter of fact," Kili pointed out.

My drawings were no better than average. Although Ori was slowly helping me out on that front. "Not that good," I told him. Kili merely smiled. "Yeah. Ori drew that. I saw it earlier this morning and asked him if I could have it. I don't know... I liked the drawing. I liked the memory too."

Maybe I had said too much... "As do I," Kili agreed, letting me know that I hadn't said too much. "Would you care for another dance?"

I laughed softly. "There's no music."

"We don't need it."

It's a terrible idea, Leah. So, I said, "Okay."

Was dancing with Kili, alone in my room, with the door locked behind us a good idea? No. I knew without a doubt that it was a bad idea. But I also couldn't bring myself to care. After all, no one was around to watch us. I stood from the bed as Kili gave me his hand. He immediately wrapped an arm around my lower back to wrap me in his arms. I smiled down at the ground as I tucked my head against his chest. It didn't take long for his head to fall down over mine. We were more standing in a loving embrace than dancing (as we were barely swaying side-to-side) but it felt perfect.

For a long time, we stood together in silence. There really wasn't anything for us to say. Nothing that we wanted to have to deal with right now. Or ever. We merely spun about the room for a little while. There was no pattern or rhythm to the dance. It just... was. Just like us. Throughout the dance, I didn't dare look at him. I kept my eyes firmly focused on our interlocked fingers. I knew that looking him in the eyes would only make things harder for me. I would want to kiss him. So I tucked my head into his shoulder as his hands lingered tightly at my waist.

"Did you do this with Robbie often?" Kili asked, finally breaking the silence. My head snapped up to his as I was quite surprised at his question. He looked embarrassed for having said anything. "If you don't mind my asking."

"No, it's alright," I told him, shaking my head. "Yeah. We used to do it a lot actually. When he was a baby and would start crying, I would pick him up and carry him around the house bobbing him in my arms. When he was a little older I would hold his hands and try to help him walk with me as we danced. Once he had gotten the hang of walking, he would stand on my feet as I danced. When I was in dance lessons, Robbie used to come and watch me. I stopped dancing after he died. Every time I would try would just remind me of him."

Some of my happiest memories were of dancing with Robbie. He had always loved it. He would giggle the entire time we were together. Even once he had started learning to walk, he had always wanted me to carry him. It was adorable. I missed those days. I wished that I had done it more. I supposed that I just had to learn to be grateful for the time I'd gotten with him. Kili's grip had tightened on me slightly. He knew that I didn't really enjoy talking about Robbie. But I did like remembering the happier times the two of us had gotten to have.

"It's a terrible thing to have to live with," Kili said, breaking my train of thought. "Guilt of losing a loved one. Particularly when you think that you could have changed something."

"If I hadn't suggested -"

"Playing a game that you knew he enjoyed?" Kili interrupted. Yes, I knew that he had liked that game. But it was that game that had led up to the moment he'd landed in a coma just a few months before he'd died. "Terrible things happen to good people, Leah. You must know that." He was right. I did know that. "But your brother, I promise you, loved you very much."

"How do you know?" I asked.

He'd never met my brother. My own sister hadn't even met our brother. "Trust me. He did. It would be impossible not to," Kili said.

His hand tightened around my lower back again and I smiled. But it quickly fell into a frown. "Guess that doesn't stop the guilt. Wondering if he was begging me to save him in his last moments," I muttered.

"Want to know what he's thinking right now?" Kili offered.

"Now?"

"Now."

I was silent for a moment before saying, "Stop dancing, you were never good at it."

We both laughed loudly. I might have liked dancing with Robbie, but that didn't mean I was good at it. I never had been. It was part of the reason why dancing lessons hadn't lasted that long. "He's hoping that you have a good life and fill it with treasures. Find laughter, romance, and adventure," Kili said, smiling down at me.

"Then he will have gotten his wish," I said.

Kili arched his brow. "You've found all of that?"

Had I? Yes, I had. "In their own ways. This whole thing has given me a new sense of adventure. Sure, the journey scares me sometimes. But it has shown me that I'm stronger than I think. You and the rest of the dwarves have made me laugh more in the last few weeks than I have in months back in Rohan," I told him honestly.

But I was missing one vital part. "As for the romance?" Kili asked, not missing a beat.

"Do you really need me to explain that one to you?" I asked him sharply.

"No," Kili said awkwardly.

He knew that I meant himself. He was the romance I'd always wanted. But this was a movie and it meant that it came with some major romantic drama. I just wished that I could have skipped out on the drama part. I wished that we could just skip ahead to the times where we snuck away at midnight for some time together. We went back to our dance in silence for a long time. But there was a burning desire to say something. To break out of the awkward air we had gotten ourselves into. So, I searched the far reaches of my mind for something to talk about.

Finally, I landed on the one thing that all American teenagers loved to gossip about. It was Harley's favorite topic of discussion right now. "There was this massive dance in Rohan to celebrate the end of all required education," I said, referring to the always-dreaded prom in most high schools. Kili raised a brow curiously. "Everyone comes usually. I went even though I really didn't want to."

"Did you dance?" Kili asked curiously.

It would have been very hard to completely avoid dancing. "Through the faster songs, I did. But then the slow song came on. I had a date with me but I just froze," I said. David was his name. He was a nice guy but definitely not my type. We had only been out the once. "I think he thought that I was nervous to dance with him but I kept insisting that I just didn't like slow dancing. The truth was that it would have been the first time I had really danced to a slow song since Robbie's death and I couldn't. I wanted the first person I danced with after his death to be someone special to me. He wasn't."

In the end, David hadn't been my type. He was a football player and always seemed to be jumping from girl to girl. But he had asked me to prom and everyone had insisted that I accept his offer. So, I had. Not that I'd really wanted to. We had gone and he had been a reasonably pleasant date. But he clearly hadn't liked that I wouldn't even dance with him. Apparently, it hadn't looked good for his reputation. It was best that I hadn't danced with him. He hadn't been worth it. The person I had danced with was the one who had been worth it.

"Was that person ultimately special to you?" Kili asked curiously.

"Yes," I answered.

"Who was it?" Kili asked.

Should I tell him the truth? I supposed that it was only fair. "I'm talking to him," I answered quietly.

That dance that we had shared out on the veranda last night had been the first time I had slow danced since Robbie's death. Kili's eyes shot open in surprise. "This is the first time you've danced since Robbie's death?" he asked.

"Pretty much," I answered.

"I thought that you were saving it for someone as special to you as he is," Kili said quietly.

"I was," I said. Kili still looked confused as he tightened his grip around my waist. "No matter what, Kili, you are very special to me."

"As are you to me," Kili said.

It was the truth. Whether or not my relationship ever worked out with Kili, he really did mean a lot to me. I would never regret having my first dance after Robbie's death having been with him. The two of us smiled at each other as I finally turned to meet his eyes. There was something comforting about his smile. I was telling him the truth and he knew it. No matter what happened between us, he would always hold a very special place in my heart. I leaned up on my toes and pressed a kiss against his cheek. Right then I felt his hand dig into my back slightly.

"Tell me more about that dance that you went to," Kili said, finally breaking the peaceful silence.

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell him the truth about the stereotypical American prom night without revealing who I really was. "It was this formal dance that everyone went to. It's a huge deal. Kids wait their entire lives for it. But there are some kids, like me, who don't want anything to do with it. I wasn't planning on going," I said somewhat truthfully.

"What changed your mind?" Kili asked curiously.

"My parents begged me to go. Harley was so desperate to see me dressed up. My best friends were all going and kept wanting me to go," I said. The memory was rather comical. Everyone had been so desperate for me to go. "Plus I did have a guy ask me and I said yes without thinking."

Damn my friends for making me go to prom with David. I would have rather gone alone. "Who was he?" Kili asked.

His eyes told me that he was slightly jealous. I smiled at the floor. "Just a guy in some of my classes. He was nice enough so I figured the night might not be too painful if I brought him along," I muttered stupidly.

"Sounds like the night was nice," Kili said.

"It was alright," I shrugged. "Nothing like they make it out to be in -"

My voice dropped off the moment that I realized I was about to say the movies. There was no way I could give that little bit of information away. Kili raised a brow curiously. "In?" he prompted.

"In their conversations about it," I answered awkwardly. That definitely wasn't my smoothest move. "The kids who were a few years older than us and had already finished their educational requirements."

"Ah," Kili said, nodding.

The prom definitely hadn't been exactly what I had been expecting. I had barely danced and I honestly didn't remember much of the night. "They made it out to be this night that everyone would love. But I remember watching the spinning couples on the dance floor who all looked so happy. I was watching them thinking that they were so young. How could they have thought that they were in love? They didn't know real love. There was no way. I guess I've always been kind of a pessimistic person. About love and whatnot... you know...

"The guy that came with me - I remember him standing there and asking me to go dance with him but I refused. He thought that I was being frigid. He spread this nasty rumor about me not long after the dance." Kili frowned. "Lost some of my friends because of it. When I continued my post-required education I made some new friends and lost touch with the ones from that dance, which was good, since I didn't really communicate with them anymore. Life's just never really been that fun for me. I kind of just went through the motions doing what it was that needed to get done."

Before I had gone into prom I had actually had a pretty good life. But afterward, things had kind of fallen apart. David had been perfectly fine right up until the end of the prom. He hadn't liked that we hadn't danced together and he really hadn't appreciated the fact that I hadn't slept with him afterward. Especially since he knew that I'd slept with an ex-boyfriend just a few months prior. That had led to a number of rumors of what the two of us had done after the prom and how it apparently hadn't been that great.

Because of the damaging rumors, my friends hadn't wanted to be around me. Of course, in high school, they had also thought that David was telling the truth. They thought that I was lying to them. No matter how many times I tried to tell them that he was lying they hadn't believed me. I supposed that I hadn't really fought for them to believe me that hard anyway. I hadn't cared about them enough. I'd remained mostly on my own until high school graduation had ended and I'd gone to college. Not long after I'd gotten much closer to Brian and the girls from the gym.

Even with my new friends though, I still hadn't felt quite... right. Not the way that I felt being with the company. "Doesn't sound like a fun way to live," Kili commented, breaking me from my thoughts.

He was frowning at me. I assumed that he didn't like hearing about typical American high school pettiness. "It wasn't," I said.

"You never...?" Kili asked awkwardly.

Obviously, he was asking whether or not I had ever really been with David. "Never shared so much as a kiss with him. But David knew that I'd been with a boyfriend for a while before him. He didn't see what the point was. He thought that I'd already... you know... so, who cared whether or not I did anything with him? He was a popular guy. Most things had been handed to him. He thought I would too," I explained.

"He certainly is not a real man," Kili growled.

"On that much, we agree," I said.

"You deserve much better," Kili whispered.

"Thank you," I replied, smiling at him. I'd never felt that I did but he was slowly showing me that I did. "This is probably the most alive I've been since Robbie was. This reminds me of the way I used to be. Just a happy kid."

Where had that girl gone? Had she died with her little brother? Kili released my hand and reached up to brush the loose strands of hair out of my face. "Good. You deserve happiness," Kili whispered.

My cheeks warmed slightly at his blunt statement and his sharp gaze. I was almost embarrassed at the way he looked at me. He looked at me the way no one else ever had before. Not even close. There was a lightness in my chest that I had never felt before. But I knew that as happy as I was right now, this moment would eventually end and I would be upset again at having to deal with the new relationship that had been forced upon us. I let out a deep breath and stared blankly down at the ground. Perhaps happiness just wasn't in my nature.

Kili obviously noticed my sudden change of demeanor. "Are you alright?" Kili asked.

"Yes..." I whispered, still looking at the ground.

"Leah, I'm sorry if I've -"

"It's not you. It's not. It's me," I insisted, looking back up at him. He must have noticed that I was fighting back tears. I glanced up slowly and met his eyes again. "It's just been a long time since I was genuinely happy. I always wanted to make myself happy but... I'm happiest when I'm with you."

"As am I," Kili said, wrapping his arm all the way around my back. At least I knew that he felt just as strongly about me as I did about him. "There's no shame in someone else making you happy."

"I know. I just like that independent streak I've always had," I whispered.

"Trust me when I say that you still have it," Kili teased.

He wasn't exactly wrong. That independent streak was something that I would likely always have. It was just something that had been ingrained in me since I was a young child. It was something that my parents had always found rather comical about me. The fact that I was so different - never needing anyone to be there for me - than them. I smiled as my hand dropped from Kili's. Instead, he melded our bodies together as he pulled me into a tight embrace. After a moment of hesitation, I allowed myself to fall into the folds of his body. We remained locked in the hug for a long time.

Hours could have passed. In fact, days probably could have passed and I would have been none the wiser. All I knew was that I definitely wouldn't be the first one to let go. It was the clock in the entrance hall ringing out the new hour that finally forced us apart. We very slowly released each other but didn't step back. Instead, we stared at each other for a long time. As we had so many times before, we found ourselves looking right into each other's eyes. His deep brown eyes seemed to pierce all the way to my very soul. I felt like he instantly knew all of my secrets.

But it didn't seem like a bad thing for us right now. Maybe we needed to sit down and tell each other some truths about ourselves. Or maybe that wasn't a wise choice. I had never liked the wise choices in life. The two of us very slowly moved closer and closer to each other. Was it wrong? Of course. But did it feel right? Absolutely. In a matter of seconds, I felt his mouth move up against the corner of my jaw. My eyes easily fluttered closed. His mouth very slowly moved up toward my mouth. It was centimeters away when I remembered myself and stumbled back.

"This," I gasped, shattered from the haze of... whatever it was that was between us. "This right here is exactly what I meant. It's why I told you that I needed time. We can't be around each other right now. Everything is too fresh and neither one of us have had the time to process our feelings and start moving past them. All we're doing right now is giving each other false hope. At least, that's what I feel."

"Leah -"

"You need to leave," I interrupted, swallowing thickly. "Thank you for the dance and the conversation but I think it's time for you to go."

Kili's face fell. "As you wish."

But he didn't move. "What I wish is that we could find a way to work this out. As friends. I'm still hoping for that," I said.

"Well… in the meantime, I'll be rooting for something more," Kili responded quietly.

How could I have possibly responded to that? The answer was that there was no answer. There was nothing to respond with. So I stood and waited for him to leave awkwardly. He said nothing more to me and didn't dare try and push his luck any further. He walked off and slung his leg over the edge of the balcony. He latched onto the trellis and turned to head back to the ground. He hesitated at the edge for just a moment to stare at me. All I could manage was a slightly awkward smile. He responded with a much more confident one as he dropped to the ground and vanished into the darkness.

Once I was sure he was gone, I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding. I stared after him for a moment before turning back to the bed. I tossed the book of magic onto the ground immediately. If only we had just focused on that... If only we had just kissed each other... Why did this have to become such a damned problem? I wished so desperately that I hadn't decided to kick him out of my bedroom. But I knew that it was the right thing to do. It was just the harder thing to do.

Many days passed as I continued my adventure on trying to avoid Kili. But it definitely wasn't easy. He always seemed to be hanging around somewhere trying to look for me. That was the reason that I consistently checked around corners before walking into a new room. I had become quite good at avoiding him over the few weeks we had stayed in Rivendell so far. I noticed that the dwarves had all taken note at our avoidance of each other but I was quite grateful that they'd said nothing about it. In fact, they seemed to be trying to help me keep some distance.

It became quite obvious very quickly that they all agreed with Thorin that I needed to stay away from Kili. But that didn't mean that they wanted me to be upset. It was unsurprising that they were trying to get me to do other things with my time. No one else was an archer in the company so I didn't really get a chance to practice that. But Ori allowed me to draw with him for about an hour a day. Dwalin offered to help me sword train for about an hour a day. He was slowly getting nicer to me. Balin spent a lot of time over two weeks teaching me more about the history of Middle Earth.

It only took me a few days to fall into a routine in Rivendell. It was much different than being on the road every single day. We didn't have to worry about where we were sleeping or the elements. I found myself taking a walk with Elladan in the morning. Sometimes he told me about his childhood, other times he told me about old loves, and sometimes we just enjoyed each other's company. Afterward, I would head to breakfast where I would sit anywhere but near Kili and then I would go to train in magic with Lady Galadriel.

My magic training hadn't exactly been going that well over the past few weeks. She had recommended - just as Kili had - to start with something simple. By now I had managed to perfect creating a small light from my hands. Lady Galadriel had promised that, with practice, the day would come that I wouldn't even need to recite the spell. I would be able to do it just by thinking about the light. We were now working on attempting to make objects float - which she had claimed was much more difficult. I had managed nothing so far.

After a disappointing attempt with magic, I would then go on another walk. That was when I would normally run into either Gandalf or Lord Elrond, both of who seemed to enjoy the nature of Rivendell - as I so frequently ran into them in the gardens. It wasn't as though I could blame them. Rivendell was lovely. When I ran into Gandalf, we would talk about his own magic and the potential reasons as to why I might have it. He'd admitted that he had no idea. During my chats with Lord Elrond, we talked about my old world and why I might have come to Middle Earth. There was no clear cut answer.

Usually, I would spend about two hours with one or both of them. It depended on the day. Afterward, I would then attend lunch with the rest of the company - save a day I had been feeling extra down on myself over Kili and had instead eaten in my room with Elladan. The lunch would then usually be followed by whatever I felt like doing that day. Sometimes practice, other times reading in the gardens, or even going back to my room and taking a nap. I would, later on, allow the elf-maids to help me get ready for dinner before going there, again avoiding Kili, which he didn't like at all.

Not that it really bothered me. Actually, it did bother me. But since we were trying to be only friends I had to pretend that I wasn't bothered by our somewhat cold attitude toward each other. At dinner later I would normally chat with the rest of the dwarves for a while. They were very slowly acclimating to the elves' food. But they wouldn't be eating it much longer. I usually would laugh with them for a little while before joining in on some of their festivities afterward where I tried to exchange polite small talk with Kili to keep the others from asking questions.

It didn't even take a full day to realize that our conversations were incredibly tense after I had kicked him out of my bedroom. Even the most mundane things were incredibly painful to talk about. Those were basically the only things we talked about. We discussed the mundane things like the weather and music but sometimes they turned a little too in-depth. That was when I would normally excuse myself from his company. We hadn't touched in the two weeks since he had snuck into my room. I noticed Thorin keeping a close eye on Kili each time we conversed.

It became very obvious that he was half of the reason we were so tense around each other. Because we knew that we had to be careful around each other. At least when other people could see or hear us. Much to my surprise, I had found that life wasn't too bad without having Kili constantly around. I was definitely a lot lonelier without having him to talk to about things but I knew that it could have been much worse. I just tried to appreciate the rare moments that I would get to speak to him - no matter how forced.

Over the two weeks that we had been in Rivendell, it had become quite obvious that my relationship with Kili had drastically shifted and everyone knew at least some part of the reason why. But no one openly spoke about the new relationship that the two of us had. It was something that I was very grateful for. Things were awkward enough. I only occasionally noticed furtive glances being thrown back and forth between the two of us, which I had mostly tried to ignore. I just kept trying to tell myself that they were being children about it. As long as they didn't mention it, I was okay.

After just over two weeks of being in Rivendell, I found myself sitting in the dining hall one night. My scar from the Orc arrow was long gone and I was feeling much better from the escape. I knew that we would be on our way soon but I had said nothing about it. Instead, I was enjoying the last few days that I would be able to sleep in peace without having to worry about where I would be sleeping for the nights once we were back on the road. Obviously not with Kili. Tonight I had managed to sit across from him which really wasn't where I wanted to be.

We were nearing the end of dinner when he spoke. "Not enjoying your dinner?" Kili asked.

My plate of fruits and vegetables hadn't been touched since we'd sat down. "Huh?" I asked dumbly, shaking myself from a daydream of kissing him on the veranda that night in my bedroom. Kili smiled at me. "Sorry. My mind's in another place. No, dinner is wonderful, as always."

"What's on your mind?" Kili asked curiously.

I snorted slightly. "Everything."

"Sounds like too much for one person to bear."

"Could be worse."

"I'm always here to lend an ear if you need one."

Perhaps a tiny conversation wouldn't hurt... in private... "Maybe it would -"

Right as I was about to offer Kili to head off toward the veranda on the far end of the dining hall Bifur shouted something in Khuzdul. I glanced at Kili curiously. "He's requesting a song," Kili told me.

"Thanks," I replied.

"Sing for us!" Bofur cried loudly from next to Kili.

It took me a little too long to realize what he was talking to me. "Me?" I asked stupidly.

"You, lassie," Bofur confirmed.

"Sing?" I repeated, paling slightly. It was bad enough singing for Kili, but to sing for the rest of them... "What do you want me to sing?"

"Whatever makes you happy," Bofur said.

"I - I don't really like singing in front of people," I stammered.

"Bad voice?" Oin asked.

"I've heard her sing. She's got a wonderful voice," Kili said. I turned a heated glare on him. I'll kill you, Kili. He turned to me, completely oblivious to my nerves. "Sing."

"No," I said flatly.

There was absolutely no way that I was going to sing for them. No. No way. I was far too embarrassed to have to sing for the rest of them. I didn't even like singing for the guy that I had an embarrassingly obvious crush on in private. Definitely not in front of the entire company. But, much to my surprise, Kili stood from his spot on the other end of the table, took a stand on top of it, reached down, grabbed my hands, and yanked me straight up onto the top of the table. I squealed in surprise as the dwarves began laughing and cheering for me.

"I can't," I told Kili quietly.

"Sure you can. You've got a lovely voice," Kili said, stroking the back of my hand with his fingers. "Sing something. If I remember correctly, you still owe me a song anyway."

I blushed slightly. "Not in front of everyone," I whispered.

"Pretend it's only me then," Kili replied.

This was not the way that I had wanted to sing a new song for him. Since we were kind of on the fritz with each other I hadn't even been thinking about singing for him lately. That had been the one positive of this entire thing. I thought I'd had an out from the songs. I swallowed a lump of nerves as Kili released my hands and stepped back into his own chair, taking his seat again, leaving me alone on the top of the table. The elves and dwarves alike were watching me expectantly. My palms began sweating. Eventually, I opened my mouth and forced out a song to a simple tune.

"It started out as a feeling  
Which then grew into a hope  
Which then turned into a quiet thought  
Which then turned into a quiet word

"And then that word grew louder and louder  
'Til it was a battle cry  
I'll come back  
When you call me  
No need to say goodbye

"Just because everything's changing  
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before  
All you can do is try to know who your friends are  
As you head off to the war

"Pick a star on the dark horizon  
And follow the light  
You'll come back when it's over  
No need to say goodbye

"You'll come back when it's over  
No need to say goodbye

"Now we're back to the beginning  
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet  
But just because they can't feel it too  
Doesn't mean that you have to forget

"Let your memories grow stronger and stronger  
'Til they're before your eyes  
You'll come back  
When they call you  
No need to say goodbye

"You'll come back  
When they call you  
No need to say goodbye."

As my voice trailed off, the elvish orchestra in the far corner of the room continued the soft tune on their flutes and harps. I smiled at the sight of them as the dwarves gave me a polite round of applause. Even the elves looked impressed. Elladan and Lord Elrond were smiling at me as Lady Galadriel merely nodded. I blushed again as Kili extended a hand and allowed me to step down from the table. There were many pats on the back and jokes about why I didn't sing with them more often that were exchanged. It was almost half an hour before I was left in peace.

It took less than a full minute for Kili to find his way to me. "I like that song," he commented.

It had always been one of the best songs from the Narnia franchise. In my mind, at least. "Thanks. I always liked it too," I said.

"Did you write it?"

"No. I can't write songs. I’m not that creative."

"They’re keeping the tune," Kili said, motioning back to the elvish orchestra.

"So I hear," I said, barely looking back at them.

"It's good dancing music," Kili commented.

My hands immediately began to sweat. I should have seen that one coming. I knew that he was going to ask me to dance with him. I wasn't sure if the sweat was from anticipation or nerves. I stared at Kili for a long time, trying to wonder if I had really heard him correctly. We both knew that it wasn't a good idea. I could see it in his eyes. There was also the issue that we were literally just a few feet away from Thorin. My feelings that I had been trying so hard to fight back for him suddenly returned full force. A single dance wouldn't be that bad. Would it?

Just as I was about to tell him yes, Thorin called out, "Turn in. All of you."

There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that the last comment had been directed at the two of us. "Another time, perhaps," I muttered.

"Yes. Another time," Kili agreed.

That was the same moment that I'd realized that we hadn't moved an inch from each other since he had come up to me. We were standing far too close to each other. That was likely the reason that Thorin had even said anything in the first place. I gently pushed Kili out of the way so I could move past him and leave the dining room. Maybe it was better to just get to bed for the night. Thorin would likely love that. I was no fool. The reason Thorin had called for us to go to bed was to ensure that we didn't dance together. I ignored most of the bids goodnight as I strode back past the dining table.

I was inches away from the edge of the room when Thorin called out, "Miss Ambrose."

I whipped around to him. "Steer clear of your nephew. Understood," I snarled.

After everything, as hard as I was trying to avoid him, I didn't need the constant reminders. "Is it?" Thorin asked, scowling.

I scoffed. "Goodnight, Thorin."

The last thing that I needed was Thorin getting a sudden attitude with me. Not that he hadn't already had one with me. I had a feeling that he would never, no matter what, like me. He clearly wasn't impressed by my sudden change in attitude, but I didn't really care right now. All I wanted was to have a nice conversation and a dance with his nephew. And maybe a kiss... But who the hell cared, other than him? Thorin had successfully managed to put me in a rotten mood as I stalked off. Kili ran to catch up with me, grabbing my wrist to stop me from storming out of the hall.

"What?" I hissed rudely, whipping around to him.

Kili flushed in embarrassment slightly. "Sorry if I bothered you," he mumbled. He wasn't bothering me. His uncle was. "Our conversation was interrupted. I just wanted to see if you would mind if I escorted you back to your room."

Wouldn't that just make things harder? Yes. It would have. "I can manage a few yards on my own, thank you," I said coldly.

"Have I upset you?" Kili asked confusedly.

"No. Goodnight," I hissed.

"Goodnight, Leah…" Kili whispered.

Clearly, I had offended him. Some part of me felt quite badly for the way I had spoken to him. For as many times I had either ignored him or said something rude or blankly, he had never done the same to me. Kili watched me walk off with an extremely confused look planted across his face. I hated that I had to do things like that to him but I also knew that what I had just done was for his own good. It was for both of ours. The sooner that we could go back to being casual friends the easier everything would be for both of us. Things were too tough as they were right now.

Ignoring the looks from the elves or the rest of the dwarves I walked back through the halls and wandered numbly into my bedroom. I probably should have said something to someone but I couldn't. Instead, I walked into the bedroom and stripped off my top layer of clothing to be a little more comfortable. I didn't want to worry about wearing a set of pajamas or nightgown. It was too much work. I was too tired and too annoyed to do anything other than brood. I set myself on staring up at the ceiling, cursing Thorin to the high heavens.

It felt like it had only been a few minutes when I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Leah. Wake up."

Startled from the sudden noise and feeling, I jolted awake. But I was being held down by Kili. My brows furrowed in annoyance. Things were already too hard in the daytime. Now I was dealing with midnight visits in secret? "What the hell are you doing in here?" I snarled.

"Coming to get you," Kili answered.

Absolutely not... Not this again... "Do I seriously need to kick your ass out of here?" I snapped, sitting upright.

"We're leaving," Kili said flatly.

Right... We were only here for about two weeks, which it had already been. "Oh…" I muttered dumbly.

"Thorin wanted me to come and get you," Kili explained.

"As what? A cruel joke?" I muttered irritably.

Neither one of us were in a marvelous mood after earlier with Thorin. "Come on. Gather your things," Kili whispered.

"Okay," I muttered back.

The sooner we could get out of here and back on the road with the rest of the dwarves - where I could hang around someone else - the better I would feel. I glanced up and noticed that Kili had shut the door behind himself. It was just the two of us. I leaned over and grabbed my bag up from off of the floor. That was when I realized that Kili had been laying almost on top of me to try and wake me up. My face burned slightly as I nudged him off of me. Once I had gathered my things I threw the sheets off of myself and got to my feet. Kili's eyes followed me. He immediately whipped around.

"Oh! Leah!" Kili gasped.

"What?" I asked.

"You could have warned me that you weren't decent," Kili gasped.

"What are you -?" I stopped talking when I realized what he was complaining about. My lack of clothing. "Really? A nightgown?" I asked, looking down at the silk shirt that I was wearing that dropped over my thighs to create an extremely short dress. "You guys are pathetic."

"We haven't all…"

Kili had obviously begun speaking without even thinking. I could see that he was looking down at the ground. My head snapped up the moment that he stopped speaking once I realized what he had been about to say. Likely not to be malicious about the entire thing but just to point out our very different upbringings. Somehow I was still offended by his accidental offhanded comment. Our worlds were so different! I had just done what was acceptable in my own world. Kili looked horrified that he had almost let that slip.

"Well that could have just gone poorly," I said coldly, trying to swallow my pride and let it off as a joke.

Kili gasped, moving toward me. I immediately took a step back. "I'm so sorry. That's not what I meant," Kili said.

"Yeah, I know," I growled.

"I would never say that to you," Kili said, still trying to make up his accidental comment. "I would never say that to -"

"Can we just go?" I interrupted, definitely annoyed with him.

Kili cleared his throat. "Can you get changed first?"

That was the last thing I needed. The other dwarves being unable to look at me and making little comments like that because of the way I was dressed. But... since it was just the two of us... I could take just a moment to tease him. "What's wrong? Does me being like this bother you?" I asked quietly.

"I don't think 'bother' is the right word," Kili said, swallowing thickly.

There was no doubt that I was bothering him but it wasn't in the typical sense of the word. He would have never said it, but I knew that he was just the slightest bit turned on right now. I knew that I was playing an incredibly dangerous game but I was embarrassed. I was mortified by his comment and everything that had been happening with us lately. When I was embarrassed by someone I had always played nasty and dirty with others. Wanting to hurt them more than I had been. It came from having always been a sore loser. I strode up to Kili slowly and stood mere inches from him.

"What are you doing?" Kili asked quietly, his voice huskier than normal.

"What's the matter?" I teased.

"You should get changed," Kili answered.

"I don't think you mean that," I said.

Kili's eyes looked almost black. "Leah…" he gasped.

"Yes?" I asked happily.

Just the way that I had played into him so many times before I was hoping that he would play into my game. I ended up getting exactly what I wanted. He didn't answer me explicitly but I knew what he meant. Kili's head tilted back toward the ceiling - trying to close his eyes - as I strode up to him and wrapped an arm over his shoulders. His arms found their usual space against my hips as he finally looked down at me. His hands tightened over me slightly as my heart skipped a beat. This was a terribly cruel thing to do to him, but I wanted him to be an embarrassed as I was.

Would I regret this later? Probably. He might even be angry with me for this later. But I didn't care. I had been mortified over the past two weeks. Just one moment for him to feel the same. Just one moment for us to be together. We both wanted it. I wrapped my arms a little bit tighter around the back of his neck, pulling him flush against me. Our heads very slowly came down together. His fingers hooked around the back of my neck. We were mere inches away from sharing a kiss. My legs were shaking. Mere centimeters from sharing a kiss, Kili's eyes shot open and he gently pushed me back.

We were both thrown back into reality. We were so close. "Is this a game to you?" Kili asked angrily.

"What?" I gasped. "No."

"It is. I know that look in your eyes. You don't mean this," Kili said sharply.

"You think I don't mean this?" I sneered.

He's right, you fool. "Tell me that was genuine on your part," Kili demanded.

"Well -"

"Was it all a game then?" Kili interrupted.

"This isn't a game! It was never a game to me! It's still not a game!" I shouted. Kili looked quite surprised. My face began burning a maddening red. "My feelings for you were and are far beyond everything I've felt for anyone else. You know that. I've told you plenty of times that you mean more to me than anyone else ever has. Do you think I would have danced with you for the first time since my brother's death if this was nothing more than a game to me? It's so much more. I let myself think that this could happen and when it didn't… I'm embarrassed, Kili!

"I thought that maybe something was… it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what might have been. The company knows what's happened. I'm like the mistress. They all know that there was something there. That I was... bold about things. I wanted to be a warrior here along with you all and instead, I turned into the punchline of a joke. The girl who isn't good enough to be with you. Instead of being a warrior, I'm only serving as your love interest and we can't even be together. It's embarrassing. So, yeah, maybe for a second I wanted you to feel like I did. Used. I'm sorry. It was wrong."

There was something soft in his gaze that I hadn't seen in a long time. He felt bad for me. I knew that he did. He had felt bad for a long time but now he could see just how far things had gone on my end. He obviously felt extremely terrible for me but I absolutely hated the pity that I was getting from him. My feelings were my own. I was in control of the way I felt about him. I always had been. I was in control of the way I felt about the situation with him. It was my own fault that I had been petty with him.

After a long silence, Kili finally whispered, "That's not how I ever wanted you to feel."

"You didn't do it. I did it to myself," I replied quietly.

"This - all of this - it's my fault," Kili said, waving around us. "Not yours. Nothing here was your fault."

"It's not your fault either. You know that," I said.

This wasn't either one of our faults. The only person whose fault this was, was Thorin. But I supposed that it wasn't his either. He just wanted what was right for Erebor. But that just so happened to also be wrong for his nephew. Kili very slowly stepped into me again. His arms reached up around my shoulders to pull me into a tight hug. I sighed into his chest as I reached out and wrapped my arms loosely around his middle section. He clearly didn't want to leave me. I knew that. And I would have loved to stay like this forever. But eventually, I was the first to pull away.

"Can we just go?" I sighed quietly.

"I think that's a good idea," Kili said. I stepped away from him and began pulling on my clothes. "Leah?"

"Yeah?" I asked, not bothering to look at him.

"Would it be wrong of me to say that I wish I hadn't stopped you?"

My head snapped up. "Yes. But I understand. I'm glad that you stopped me."

"Why?" Kili asked.

Because I was just being an asshole... "If that ever happens, that's not the way I want to remember it. I don't want it to be under false pretenses. I want it to be… real," I said quietly.

"It would have been," Kili said.

Would it have been real? It wouldn't have felt that way. Not with the way I was speaking to him and acting with him. But maybe it would have been. Because it was quite obvious that we wanted to be together. The two of us very awkwardly stood together for a while before I finally snapped out of it. Come on, Leah. Time to go. I began gathering my things at light speed. Kili helped me, keeping a slight distance between us. I could tell that neither one of us were particularly thrilled with what had just happened. I was embarrassed and so was he.

"Are you ready?" Kili asked once I had gathered my things.

"To leave this place behind? Not really. The memories? Those I'm ready to leave here," I answered.

"Not all of them," Kili replied.

No... Maybe not all of them. Not the knowledge that he really did feel the same way about me as I did about him. But I didn't want to remember how those feelings would never work out. I sighed and left the room without saying anything else to him. He followed a few feet behind me. As we walked back toward the rest of the company I found myself wishing that I had gotten a chance to say goodbye to Lord Elrond, Lady Galadriel, and Elladan. But I supposed that if I survived the Battle of the Five Armies I would see them again at some point.

We arrived back at the dining hall where the dwarves had been staying quickly. I noticed the many gazes that were pointed our way as we walked in. I immediately walked to Bilbo, ignoring them as best I could. I stood with him in silence as the rest of the dwarves gathered their things and stole a few provisions from the elves. No one spoke as we packed for fear that we would accidentally wake up the elves. Once we were finally ready to leave I smiled at Fili and fell into step with him. He was one of the few of them that I could be around right now.

Without saying anything to the elves, and leaving Gandalf back in Rivendell, we headed off. Our hike took us up through the mountains that surrounded Rivendell and away from the relative safety of the elvish realm. Thorin was at the head of the pack with Balin and Dwalin following close behind. I was in between Fili and Gloin, trying desperately to avoid Kili and also trying to remember how the hell to walk on such rocky terrain. I knew that it would take me a while to get used to hiking through the rough wilderness of this side of Middle Earth.

"Be on your guard," Thorin demanded as we hiked higher and higher into the mountains. "We're about to step over the edge of the Wild. Balin, you know these paths. Lead on."

"Aye," Balin confirmed.

He took over the lead from Thorin. As the rest of the dwarves began walking the path again I hung back by Bilbo slightly. Thorin was also watching Bilbo. "Master Baggins. I suggest you keep up," Thorin called back.

Bilbo was looking back at Rivendell lovingly. I could see it in his eyes. He didn't want to have to leave this place. Not that I could blame him. Right now I didn't really want to leave either. I wanted to be here for a while longer. As we all headed off into the mountains again, rounding the cliffs and leaving Rivendell behind, I remained at Bilbo's side. I definitely felt slightly bad for him. I knew that he had been loving being here. But I also knew that he would be back here eventually. It was very hard to not tell him that.

"It's an easy place to miss," I told Bilbo quietly.

"It was just a nice change of pace," Bilbo replied.

"I understand," I said.

As we walked, tripping over the rocks and roots that littered the mountain path, Bilbo glanced up at me. "I hear we'll be stopping in a suitable cave later on in the morning. Once we're far enough away from Rivendell," he told me.

"Sounds plausible," I answered.

"If you need a new place to sleep..." Bilbo trailed off.

That would solve one problem. I smiled at him. "Thanks, Bilbo," I said quietly.

The two of us smiled at each other. I wrapped him in a slight side-hug as we continued along the path, trailing in the back of the company. He had definitely just made this transition a little bit easier for me. I now didn't have to go hunting for a place to sleep since Kili's shoulder was clearly out of the question. We continued along our journey for a long time that I spent mostly trying to avoid Kili. I could feel his lingering gaze piercing through me. But this was the start of our new journey together. As friends and nothing more.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

There were many paths that led up into the mountains that surrounded Rivendell, and many passes over them. But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and led nowhere or to bad ends; there were numerous times that one of us almost wen plummeting over the edge of a cliff and into a ravine below. Bilbo was one of the most prone to falls. One night when we were walking I had almost run myself straight off the edge of the mountain. Were it not for Fili's quick reaction time I would have been a human pancake.

Most of the passes we traveled over were infested by evil things and dreadful dangers. According to Gandalf's memory from when we were in Rivendell, we would have run into Wargs and Orcs and all sorts of other things. I could only relate some of the creatures to wild oxen and horses and elephants. After our trouble with the trolls, I wasn't fond of meeting another beast larger than me. So our company, helped by the wise advice of Elrond and the knowledge and memory of Gandalf, took the right road to the right pass.

In the long days that followed it felt like we had traveled over the entirety of Middle Earth at least ten times. My legs had never been both weaker and stronger in my life from the constant trekking. As much as I was used to working out in the gym for hours at a time, I wasn't used to walking this much. It made it even worse that we no longer had the ponies - having lost them when the Wargs and Orcs had attacked before we'd gotten to Rivendell. We would need to get more ponies soon. We would never make it to Erebor in time on foot.

Once we had crossed over the mountainous paths outside of Rivendell we wandered rocky and mountainous plains that seemed to span to the end of the earth. It felt like it would never end. They were very similar to the ones we had been forced to run along to escape the Wargs and Orcs. These seemed to be about ten times as long considering that we weren't running along them. It ended up taking us almost four days to make our way through the plain. No one was particularly happy about those nights of sleep with little cover to the surrounding world.

Toward the end of the plain, we ended up having to work our way down the mountains and into the cavernous regions underneath the waterfalls. We were forced to walk one-by-one, seeing as the path was so narrow. It was absolutely beautiful. The waterfalls framed the landscape like nothing I had ever seen before. It didn't even look like it should have been real. One of the nights that we had stopped underneath the waterfalls I asked Ori stop and draw them with me. I never wanted to forget how beautiful that place was.

After almost two weeks we made our way out of the plains and into the next pass of mountains. Coming from Florida, I had never been in altitude like in Middle Earth before. It took a few days for me to become used to the thinner air. I had to just push through to keep the others from asking me if there was anything wrong. The other problem was that the air was much colder this high up in the mountains. I definitely wasn't having a good time with it. I was freezing before we even met the snow at the top of the mountains. There was a reason I'd never had plans to leave Florida.

We only talked with each other so often during the next few weeks of our journey. Usually only when was absolutely necessary. It was mostly because the journey was hard and taxing and we didn't stop for breaks that often. The only time we really got to speak to each other was when we were stopped for the night. But I was extremely grateful for the long bits of silence. It made things a little bit easier to get used to the new relationship that had been forced upon me with Kili since we didn't get much of a chance to talk.

In fact, after about two weeks we had only exchanged some daily pleasantries. Asking each other about the weather, how we were handling things, or if we could help the other with anything. Just enough to keep the company from talking - though we both knew that we were still the center of gossip whenever they got the chance. It was easy to see that Kili desperately wanted to talk to me. But I wasn't ready to talk to him just yet. Not after everything and not with everyone listening in. I would rather try and leave him alone so I could forget about him. It had been working well so far.

That wasn't the entire truth, though. The truth was that I so desperately missed Kili. I missed everything about him. I missed the conversations that we used to have. The easy ebb and flow to our conversations that never had any awkward pauses. The laughter that we'd always shared. Getting to sleep together. Wrapped in each other during the cold nights that had blown through the campsites. It would have been a lie if I had said that I didn't miss the thoughts that we might have had something more to our relationship. But that had all changed now.

Long days after we had climbed out of the valley and left the Last Homely House miles behind, we were somehow still going up and up and up. It was a hard path and a dangerous path, a crooked way, lonely and long. By now we could look back over the lands we had left, laid out behind us far below. Far, far away in the West, where things were blue and faint, I knew there laid Bilbo's own country of safe and comfortable things, and his little hobbit-hole. I knew that sometimes he still missed it. I shivered. It was getting bitter cold up here, and the wind came shrill among the rocks.

Boulders, too, at times came galloping down the mountain-sides, let loose by mid-day sun upon the snow, and passed among us (which was lucky), or over our heads (which was alarming). Sometimes it seemed like people were deliberately trying to hit us. It was kind of like living through a less intense version of a Gamemaker trap in The Hunger Games. The nights were comfortless and chill, and we didn't dare to sing or talk too loud, for the echoes were uncanny, and the silence seemed to dislike being broken - except by the noise of water, the wail of wind, and the crack of stone.

The longer that the journey went on, the more depressing things seemed to be getting. My absence with Kili definitely wasn't helping things. The company was all irritable as the days dragged on. The summer was already getting on back home. No classes. Trips all the way out to the Florida Keys and camping. My friends and family were sure to be having a wonderful time. Fourth of July fireworks. Vacations to the theme parks. Kids and parents would be preparing for the back-to-school shopping season before we even began to go down the other side at the rate we were going.

Many afternoons were spent thinking of my family and my friends and what they were doing these days. Out of all of the people I left back home, I definitely missed Harley the most. I didn't really miss my parents at all seeing as they had never been around me that much anyway. Not only that, but they used to complain at me whenever we were together. No. As much as I loved my parents I definitely didn't miss having to see them every day. I just wished that I could send them the occasional text or give a quick phone call.

On some level, I did miss my friends. After all, they were some of the people who had been there for me unconditionally since we had all met. Yes, I supposed that I did miss them. They would have been good to chat with about the whole Kili situation. After just three months, I definitely missed being physically intimate with someone. Not just Brian. Hell, anyone at this point. But I knew that it was for the best to break things off with Brian - even if it meant leaving my realm. Now I just wished that I could be with Kili. But he wasn't that kind of man.

In one of my recent letters to Harley, I had realized something. Number one, writing to myself was kind of cathartic. Number two, three months wasn't normally an acceptable amount of time to fall in love with someone. It wasn't long enough. But there was the simple fact that we had been stuck together every second of every day. We hadn't been apart since meeting in Bilbo's home all those months ago. That time had really accelerated the relationship that we'd had. Being forced to fight and eat and sleep and train together. We had fitted in a year in three months.

My depressing thoughts about Kili were only helped by the generally depressing mood around camp. The others were all thinking equally gloomy thoughts. Although when we had stood with Lord Elrond in the high hope of arriving in Erebor on a midsummer morning, they had spoken happily of the passage of the mountains, and of riding swift across the lands beyond. We had thought of coming to the secret door in the Lonely Mountain, perhaps that very next last moon of Autumn. Durin's Day, as Lord Elrond had explained. Only Gandalf had shaken his head and said nothing.

Did he think that we might not make it? At this point, even knowing the story, it seemed like there was no way that we would make it in time. Very few dwarves had passed the way that we were traveling for many years (Balin was one of the few), but Gandalf had, and he knew how evil and danger had grown and thrived in the Wild, since the dragons had driven men from the lands, and the goblins had spread in secret after the battle of the Mines of Moria. We were relying mostly on his advice from back in Rivendell and from Balin's fading memory.

It seemed like a bad idea to me but I knew that my opinion wasn't really wanted at the moment. So, I said nothing and merely followed along. Even the good plans of wise wizards like Gandalf and of good friends like Lord Elrond would manage to go astray sometimes when you were off on dangerous adventures over the Edge of the Wild, and Gandalf was a wise enough wizard to know it. As was I, but it was mostly because of my knowledge of the movies. I was prepared for the upcoming Thunder Giant battle - but I wasn't prepared for what would come before.

One night just after we had entered the snow-capped mountains I fell was curled up for bed at the edge of the mountain-face with the rest of the dwarves. The path we were traveling had no caves to hide out in for the night so we slept on the path. I was curled up as close to the face of the mountain as I could possibly get. My legs were tucked in on themselves as I shivered at the bitter cold. Even my two cloaks - one built for the cold weather and one for the rain - weren't helping me. I was half-asleep - too cold to fully relax - when I felt something being dropped on me.

I cracked an eye open to see that Kili was laying his cloak over me. Having definitely been better prepared for the journey than I was, Kili had brought a winter cloak with him. His had fur lining on the interior and seemed to be about three layers thick. It was definitely more useful than mine. He'd barely looked down at me as he had given me the cloak to use as a blanket. He was now left in a thin tunic. He was about to walk off - heading back on watch - when I reached up and grabbed his wrist. He looked surprised that I was still awake. I kept my voice low as the others were already asleep.

"What about you?" I asked worriedly.

Kili smiled sadly. "You need it more."

He made a move to walk off when I caught his wrist again. "Wait a second -"

Kili gently pulled out of my grasp and leaned down to press a kiss against my forehead. "Go to sleep. I'm fine," he whispered.

If he was going to give me his cloak I was going to at least share it. Kili perched himself on a rock not far from where I was laying. I rose to my feet and walked over to him. He raised a brow as I plopped back on the ground and laid myself half in his lap to keep at least some warmth on him. He smiled and rested a hand gently in the small of my back as I almost immediately drifted off to sleep. When I woke in the morning, neither one of us had shifted positions. Kili was still asleep. For a moment I shifted to say good morning but quickly caught Thorin's glare being sent my way.

Right... I had almost forgotten my promise that I wouldn't continue flirting with his nephew. Kili woke up when I quickly jostled myself out of his lap. It felt like his hand might have tightened over my tunic for a brief moment - where it had been resting all night - in an attempt to get me to stay with him. But I disentangled myself from his body and handed back his cloak without giving him a chance to say anything else. I walked to the other side of the camp, only briefly stopping to reaffirm my promise with Thorin that I would avoid Kili, before sitting with Bofur and diving into breakfast.

In the following days, I did anything in my power to keep from getting too close to Kili. Whenever I saw him coming I would walk off in the other direction. I definitely avoided him during the nights sleeping deliberately on the other side of camp or tucked in between other members of the company. I spent most of my nights shivering at the edge of the campsites with Bilbo - who was about as acclimated to this weather as I was. I wanted Kili's cloak again - and the owner - but I forced myself to just get over it. Whatever we had was over.

Just a little more than two weeks after we had left Rivendell I was sitting with Dwalin on the edge of the campsite. He had gotten reasonably friendly with me lately. We didn't really have normal conversations; I wasn't exactly sure how to just converse with someone like him. We mostly talked about the different ways to use a sword. He had been showing me a lot of different holds and fighting techniques lately since my hands weren't that big or strong. He was just showing me how to swing the sword back over my head - without decapitating myself - when we were interrupted.

"Might I interrupt?" Kili asked politely.

For a moment I thought that he wanted Dwalin. But I quickly realized that it was me he wanted to speak to. "Certainly," Dwalin said, standing from his spot and turning back to me. "Goodnight, lassie."

"Night, Dwalin," I called back. He gave Kili an 'I'd-be-careful-if-I-were-you' kind of look before walking off. "What's up?"

"Care to train?" Kili offered.

The two of us alone in the woods. Bad idea. I glanced up at the stormy skies around us and shook my head. "In weather like this?" I asked.

Firing an arrow definitely wouldn't be fun with the harsh winds whipping around us. Kili shrugged. "Could make for some useful skills for me to teach you. It's not always going to be sunny with a slight breeze. The deeper into Middle Earth we venture, the more days like this we'll face," Kili pointed out.

It was a good point. "It's probably not a good idea," I mumbled.

"You said that we were friends. We're friends, Leah. We have to start somewhere," Kili said. When I had meant somewhere, I'd meant conversations across the dinner table with everyone else around. Not in the middle of the woods, all alone, with no one to stop us. "These lessons were always good for us. Not to mention that I do intend to keep my promise on training you. We haven't done any archery training in a long time."

"Well..." I mumbled.

In all honesty, I did miss those training sessions. I'd like getting to become a skilled archer. "When's the last time you fired an arrow?" Kili asked.

"During the attack before Rivendell," I answered.

Literally over a month ago. Kili smiled. "I thought so. Come on," he said, motioning for me to follow him. "I told Thorin we wouldn't wander far."

My brow quirked. "He knows?" I asked, surprised.

I'd have thought the last thing that he would have wanted was us out in the woods, alone together. Kili shifted awkwardly and I knew immediately that he was lying. "Well... Fili knows," he said.

"That's more like it," I giggled. Training for a while wouldn't be that bad, would it? "Twenty minutes."

What could happen in twenty minutes? "Twenty minutes tops," Kili confirmed. "Come on. Let's head out a bit. Not enough room to practice out here."

"Where are we heading?" I asked.

"Somewhere that I don't have to worry about you skewering one of our company members," he teased.

"Mmm... No faith in me, huh?"

"Lots of faith in you. But just in case. We don't need to give Thorin a reason to hate you even more."

"I knew he hated me."

Kili glanced down thoughtfully. When he looked back up, he was no longer smiling. "Actually, I suppose that it's not you that he hates. He hates the way that I look at you," he told me.

A blush appeared on my face instantly. Right back to square one... I stared at him for a moment - so desperate to kiss him - before shaking my head. "We came out here for you to give me another lesson in archery. Not for anything else. Just show me where we're going," I said sternly.

Kili frowned. "Okay."

The rest of the walk was made in complete silence. Neither one of us really knew what to say to the other. Not after what he had just said. I could tell that he wanted me to respond to him but I refused. We were just friends, damn it. We didn't speak or look at each other. I was fine with that. It was easier to just ignore each other right now. We walked for about ten minutes before coming upon a small grassy patch on an offshoot of the mountain that we could practice on. We would definitely be out for more than ten minutes but that was okay. I really did need the practice.

"So... what are we doing?" I asked awkwardly, standing in the center of the field.

"I want to show you how far you've come," Kili said.

"Okay..." I said confusedly.

Kili smiled as he reached for one of the quivers on his back. "These are practice arrows," he said, showing me a few arrows that had oddly rounded heads. "The tips are dulled so that if you hit me or if I hit you, neither one of us will injure the other. You've seen the practice sword before. We're going to try some practical training. The Orcs were at a long distance. They won't always be."

I stepped back nervously. "Kili... I don't think I've trained enough for this," I muttered.

Kili shook his head. "Listen to me, Leah. You've been doing wonderfully lately. When you attacked the Orcs and saved Thorin from getting hit with the black arrow, I was amazed," he said. Some part of me - a very tiny part - almost wished that I had let him get hit. "Trust me when I tell you that you can do this. You just have to believe in yourself as I do."

Like he did. Even after everything that had happened between us, he still believed in me. "Alright," I finally conceded. "Let's give it a shot."

Kili smiled, handing me half of the practice arrows. "Remember. Life or death," Kili said. I nodded. The day would soon come that it really would be life or death. "Take no time to think. Just act."

"Okay," I said.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment. Kili smiled as he let his hand fall from mine. For whatever reason, my heart was beating faster than normal. I guessed that it was because it was finally time to see just how good I was. If I really could save him. Kili walked off, hiding behind the edge of the mountain. Sneak attack. I took my position at the end of the small field and nocked my first arrow, keeping the bow down at my side. I waited for what felt like hours for him to make his first move, anxiously bouncing on the heels of my feet.

If I hadn't heard the grass shifting underneath his feet I would have completely missed Kili running at me from my right side. I knew that he was acting as an Orc - not afraid of getting hit. I pulled back on the string and released the arrow. It struck him straight in the chest. He grinned as he grabbed his sword and thrust it out at me. I stumbled back as he slid past me and came up on my other side. He dropped the sword and drew an arrow at light speed. I had just enough time to turn on my heel and nock another arrow, firing it into his chest.

He smiled at me again as he picked up a knife (that for a brief moment I was terrified was real) and chucked it at me. I barely managed to fall back onto the ground to avoid it as the blade skimmed over my forehead. Kili darted back to my other side as I laid the bow down and kicked back up to my feet, grabbing it in the process. When I raised back up I saw that Kili was at my back and preparing to throw the same knife from before that he had run to pick up. As he threw it I spun sideways out of its way, nocked and drew a new arrow, and fired it once I had come completely around.

Much to my surprise, the arrow again found its mark in his stomach. Kili held up a hand as he threw up a rock - pointing out that it was a new target at a different height. I whirled around on my heel and fired the arrow up into the air. The arrowhead just barely managed to nick the corner of the rock to shoot it down. Kili threw another rock way harder than I knew was to simulate a flying target. I tracked the rock through the air for a few seconds before firing. That one managed to make a perfect connection.

Whirling back around I saw that Kili had tossed a rock just feet higher than he was standing. I reached up and fired the arrow into the rock. It went shooting off into the distance as I glanced down. Kili was gearing up to shoot another arrow. Knowing that I didn't have enough time to move, I threw myself down into a somersault forward and underneath the arrow. As I came back up onto my knees I reached back and drew an arrow, firing it into his chest. He grinned as I rose back to my feet - watching him throw another rock into the distance - turned on my heel and fired into the rock.

The arrow just barely caught the rock. In fact, that one might have missed. I couldn't quite tell. I turned on my heel again to see that Kili was getting ready to fire another arrow at me. I reached back and fired an arrow straight into his shoulder. I rolled my eyes at myself and fired into his stomach the second time. He grinned again and reached back to throw a rock into the air again. I watched it shoot up into the air and waited for a second for it to come back down before firing again. He hissed in pain as it nicked his temple.

My shoulders were still slightly tense as I waited for him to throw again. But he motioned for me to relax. He was done. I stood off to the side of the field breathing in and out heavily. I definitely wasn't expecting that from either one of us. Kili was smiling at me. I could see a few black marks of the charcoal on the arrowheads on him. Mostly on his chest and shoulders. I had one thick line on my shoulder (which I couldn't remember getting) and another on my forehead I could see in the reflection of his eyes. Otherwise, he hadn't managed to get me.

Kili gave me a few seconds to gather myself before moving toward me. "Look at that. You're better than you think you are," he said, laughing at the sight of his dirtied shirt.

"How did you get me to do that?" I asked breathlessly.

Kili arched a brow. "What are you talking about? That was all you. Sometimes you just need someone to believe in you."

"Thank you," I said, smiling at him. "That was... incredible..."

"Perfect. That's what it was."

We both smiled at each other. He was standing slightly closer than I would have normally been comfortable with but I wasn't going to say anything right now. I was elated. Maybe I really stood a chance of saving his life in the Battle of the Five Armies. It hadn't been exactly perfect - I had been nicked by him a few times - but I knew what he meant. A little more practice and maybe I would be. We both began laughing and didn't stop until I heard a sharp clap of thunder from nearby. Another night meant that another storm was rolling in.

"Sounds like a storm is coming," I said.

Kili nodded his consent. "We should get back to the others."

"Yeah."

It was too bad that our time was already ending but this had been a good start to us getting to be friends again. "Are we agreed that we can come out training together again?" Kili asked.

"We're agreed," I said.

We gathered the arrows and knives that we could find before meandering back down the path that led to the cave we had decided to camp out in for the night. At least we would get some coverage for the storm tonight. It looked like a bad one. We chatted softly as we walked back. About nothing and everything. How we had been, how we were enjoying the journey, and definitely about how much we missed having the ponies. It was so much easier riding them and letting them carry our provisions rather than having to walk and carry everything.

For the first time in weeks, I found myself happy just to stand and chat with him. Not even necessarily to flirt with him. As much as I did miss getting to flirt with him I really just missed his company. I missed getting to talk to him about something as minuscule as the storm clouds rolling in. His friendship was one of the things I had so desperately missed after Thorin's order for us to keep apart. I just liked having him around me. But Kili surprised the hell out of me when, after a few minutes, he launched himself toward me and tackled me to the ground.

We hit the ground in a mess of limbs and hair. "What are you doing?" I gasped.

"You let your guard down!" Kili yelled. This was a fucking training exercise? I'd thought that we were getting to be friends again! I was so caught off guard that I wasn't sure what to do. I barely managed to avoid him grabbing my neck. "You think a battle will be fair? A battle will never be fair."

"Asshole!" I shouted.

There was only one thing I could think to do. He was too heavy and had already pinned me underneath himself. But I used to know how to fight with a staff. My students had always loved them. They'd thought that it looked really cool - and it did. It was something that I'd spent a lot of time teaching my students back in Tampa. They had loved the staff fights in films and had asked me to choreograph them to learn in the gym. I had agreed to train myself and then teach them. Right now there was a perfectly good branch that I could use for one.

Shoving my foot into Kili's chest, I kicked him off me and rolled back to my feet, gathering the branch in my hands and hopping back to my feet. Kili watched curiously as I took the branch and raised it to my side. It was about four feet long and almost perfectly straight. I raised the staff in my right hand, spun it back over my left shoulder to then pull it back down over my right, and then spun it around my neck. Kili watched with wide eyes as I spun the staff in my hand again and pointed it right at him. He'd made a big mistake trying to mess with me.

"What?" Kili gasped, surprised.

"As you said, a battle is never fair!" I cried back.

As Kili ran at me I grabbed the staff and shoved it in between his legs, catching him at the shin and knocking it to the side. He tripped up as I pulled the staff back and shoved it into his sternum. He caught the staff in his hands just in time to avoid getting skewered. I raised the staff and spun over underneath it. I pulled the staff back out of his hands and kicked him in the stomach. He fell straight onto his back down a few feet onto the path below us. I jumped down to his level and hit the ground in a tuck and roll, planting the staff in the ground.

When I rolled back to my feet I grabbed the staff and pulled it free from the ground. As Kili got to his feet I flipped the staff to the end of it and threw it out to whack him across the face. He stumbled back again. I spun the staff over in my hands against as I leaned down and swiped it underneath his feet. He just barely managed to jump over it as I used one hand to throw myself into a one-handed cartwheel back to my feet. Kili looked shocked as we stood on opposite ends of the mountain path, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

In the end, it was me. Running at Kili, I slid past him on my knees and swung the staff out at his side. It slammed into him painfully as he collapsed slightly. Toward the end of my slide, I turned on my knees and raised myself back to my feet. Kili ripped his practice sword out of his sheath and swung it out at me. I ducked underneath and shoved the staff back into his stomach. He grunted in pain as I shoved it underneath his ribs to use as a hold and flipped back to my feet. Kili gasped as I placed one foot up on his knee and used it as leverage to swing myself up.

My other leg came across my body to kick him firmly in the face. He staggered back again as I fell out of my kick and hit the ground again. I spun the staff over in my hands one more time and swung it out to whack him across the face. He was thrown back as I grinned, straightening up and tossing my makeshift staff to the ground. Kili was rubbing his cheek where I had hit him while keeping his other hand over his ribs. It had likely hurt him pretty badly but I had to admit that injuring him had made me feel just the slightest bit better.

"You're right. Battles aren't fair," I said proudly.

He didn't appear to be capable of rising to his feet anytime soon. "Enjoy that, did you?" Kili grunted.

We both started laughing. At least I knew that he wasn't bitter about the ass-whooping I'd just given him. "Yeah. Honestly, I enjoyed that a lot," I admitted.

"Glad to have made you happy," Kili groaned.

Messing with him just the one time was absolutely worth it. We both looked at each other for a moment before we began laughing hysterically. I walked over to offer him a hand up but the moment our fingers had linked he yanked me down on top of him. I laughed again, both at my very-deserving collapse and at his misfortune. I could have stayed like that for hours but I suddenly noticed that the sky looked a lot more menacing than it did a few minutes ago. The wind had picked up and was now howling deafeningly. I had to shout just for him to hear me.

"I think we should go," I howled at Kili.

He nodded his consent. "Come on."

The last thing we needed was to get stuck out here in weather like this. I pushed myself off of Kili and gave him a hand up. He definitely had to walk slightly slower than normal because of the few tough hits out there. He would be bruised in the morning. We had to storm through the wind to try and get back to the cave where we had been sleeping for the night. But the rain began after just a few minutes and it whipped painfully into our faces. I couldn't even hear Kili as he tried to shout at me. I couldn't see him well enough to be able to read his lips either.

"What?" I shouted at him.

"We have to take cover!" Kili bellowed.

"We have to get back to the cave!"

"The cave is too far! We'll never be able to find it!" What the hell were we supposed to do? We couldn't just hide out in the open. We needed to find somewhere to wait out the storm. "We need to take cover!"

"Where?" I asked.

"Come here!"

It was almost impossible to see him even though he was holding onto me. Kili grabbed onto my hand and wrenched me with him. I needed it since I could barely walk against the wind. He had me tucked underneath his arm as he tried to shade me from the rain and wind. It was only working the slightest bit as we staggered back along the path we had come from. I could barely open my eyes through the rain. It was too painful. Eventually, I felt him stumble down the rocks. I would have fallen if not for his tight grip. I immediately felt the wind and rain stop. Suddenly I could hear and see again.

The moment I'd opened my eyes I noticed that we were in a cave. But not the one we'd come from. "Where are we?" I asked, hearing my voice echo off the cave walls.

Kili looked around, releasing me to wander through the cave. "One of the many caves in this system," Kili explained. I rolled my eyes. That part was a little self-explanatory. "We need to get some shelter from the rain and wind. There's no way that we can get back to the others in this storm."

"We can't stay here!" I gasped.

"Unless the storm calms down, we have to. The elements out there will undoubtedly kill us," Kili said.

No way. There was no way that I was getting stuck here all night with Kili. "But what - what will the others think?" I stammered.

He shook his head. He must have known that I wouldn't like this one. "They're no fools. They'll know that we went looking for some coverage. They'll know that we can't travel back until the weather clears," Kili explained.

Stuck in here alone with him? It was like the beginning of a tacky romantic comedy. "Damn it... we're trapped here?" I asked breathlessly, wandering around the small cave.

Kili nodded. "For now."

What would the others be thinking? Were they going to come and rescue us? Could they even get out in weather like this? A chill was in the air that pierced me down to the bone. It was only then that I realized that I was almost completely sopping wet. For just a brief moment I yearned for the halls of Rivendell or the fireplace in my living room back in Florida. My massive closet with a thousand sweaters and jackets. Here I had nothing. Not even a fire pit to try and keep me warm. My body began wracking itself with shudders from the cold - and perhaps a bit of nerve.

What if something attacked us out here? "You're soaking wet. It's freezing out there," Kili commented, looking over at me. I rolled my eyes again. Way to state the obvious, genius. "You need to get into something dry and warm."

"How many clothes do you think I brought with me for training?" I hissed.

Kili didn't look offended by my nasty tone. He merely stared at me for a moment. It looked like he was unsure of whether or not he should say something. "Take off your overclothes," he stated, apparently decided it was worth mentioning.

For someone who was so prudish, I was shocked at how blunt the request had been. "What?" I asked, shocked by his sudden change of heart.

Kili suddenly seemed to realize how I had taken his statement. "You told me once that you were quite good with medicine," he said. I nodded. "You know, as well as I do, that you'll fall prey to hypothermia if you stay in those clothes. They won't dry without heat and we have none of that right now."

Duh... He didn't want to sleep with me (I supposed that I actually wasn't quite sure about that one) but he did want me to stay as warm as possible. Having been a part of a gym I'd always been good with basic medicine. I knew that one of the main reasons hypothermia sometimes set in so quickly was because the victim was wet. The moisture clung to the skin and without heat or fire made it almost impossible for the victim to warm up. Exactly what was happening to me right now. He was right and I knew it. I would freeze in the wet clothes.

"Shit..." I mumbled. What was I supposed to do? Run around naked with him right there? I might like that, but Thorin definitely wouldn't. "Turn around."

"Of course," Kili said without hesitation.

This night was just destined to get better and better. I couldn't believe that the one night we had gone training was the one night a serious storm would set in and trap us. J.R.R. Tolkien - I sincerely hope you're laughing and rolling in your grave right now because I'm definitely not. Kili turned and put his back to me, facing the wall of the cave, while I changed. I slowly began pulling off the sopping clothes. They were sticking to my body and almost painful to rub against the sensitive skin. I glanced down to see the blueish tint to my skin and gasped quietly.

Yes, I was definitely already starting to fall victim to hypothermia and the night was just beginning. My body began shaking uncontrollably as I fought to keep my hands somewhat steady. I dropped my soaking wet pants and tunic onto the ground and kicked off my boots as well. I kept my slightly damp fur socks and underwear on. Still slightly nervous, I grabbed my cloak off the ground and turned it inside out. It wouldn't be quite as warm as normal but at least it was something dry. I threw it on over my shoulders and closed it over my front.

"Okay. You can turn around now," I said, tying my wet hair up, finally reasonably pleased with my appearance. Kili turned back and looked extremely grateful to see that I was still mostly clothed. Now came the issue that he was still in his wet clothes. "What about you? Those clothes are soaking."

Kili shook his head. "I can survive in the cold a little better than you can."

He didn't sound completely confident but I chose to let it go. "What d-do we do?" I stammered nervously.

"Wait out the storm. Hope it passes," Kili said.

It had only been dinnertime when we had left for training. We had at least twelve hours before we could make the trip back to the cave if the storm didn't let up before then. I nodded at him fearfully, clamping my jaws to keep my teeth from chattering. I took a seat in the sand and pulled my quiver off my back to begin sharpening the arrowheads. Anything to distract me from the bitter cold. Although with the way my hands were shaking I was sure that I was actually cutting off chunks of the arrowheads, only making them worse. But I needed to do something with my hands.

Not that it really helped. My hands went numb within a few minutes and I had to stop. I was sure that I was going to take off the tip of my fingers if I kept at it. Kili clearly couldn't sit still. I knew that he wanted to try and explore outside but it looked like a hurricane was forming. There was no way he could go out there. So, he settled for exploring the cave. As he had said, it was mostly to ensure that we would be safe for potentially the entire night. My stomach began growling not long after he had vanished. Thinking we would only be twenty minutes, I hadn't had dinner.

Now I wished that I had been smart enough to grab even a few quick bites. My stomach roiled with both hunger and nerves. I so desperately wished that someone was with me. I wished Kili was back up here. I hated being alone like this. I hated wondering if he was okay. I was just glad that he was here with me - even if he was both the best and worst person to have been trapped with. Almost ten minutes passed before he wandered back to where he had left me. He looked cold and annoyed. But not scared. I assumed that he hadn't found anything.

"F-Find anything?" I asked, shivering.

He shook his head. "No. The cave isn't that deep, which is good. Nothing's hiding in here." At least we wouldn't get attacked. No one would be wandering in the open in weather like this. "Also means there's no way for us to travel deeper into the cave system to try and find our way back," Kili continued.

"We're stuck here, then?" I asked, fearing what I'd known was the truth all along.

"Unfortunately," Kili confirmed. He looked down at me and smiled. "The company's good, at least."

We both smiled at each other. His looked a lot stronger than mine did. My entire body was trembling. I couldn't even keep the muscles working to smile. It quickly fell as we took our spots next to each other in the sand. It became quickly evident that I couldn't even walk around to try and warm myself up. I couldn't do anything given how cold I was. I wasn't built for this kind of weather. My body would be next to useless until I could warm up slightly.

"You're freezing," Kili commented after a long silence.

Saying it was only making things worse. "I'm a little chilly. Better n-now that I'm out of the wet clothes," I stammered, trying to run my frozen hands over my icy body. It didn't help. "N-Nothing a fire won't fix."

If we could light a fire I would feel about a hundred times better. "We can't leave to look for any supplies," Kili said regretfully. "Lighting a fire would be alerting someone that we're here, anyway."

"We lit a fire in the other cave," I pointed out.

"There were fifteen of us. We had help. If someone had come looking for us, we could have defended ourselves," Kili explained. "With just the two of us out here, yourself clearly being incapacitated -"

"I am not!" I yelled bitterly.

But he was right. Kili's jaws set in annoyance. "Leah, you're freezing to death. You can't fight anyone right now. We can't get out or light a fire. It doesn't look like the storm will be letting up anytime soon. We're stuck here tonight," Kili said sharply. I stared at him. I was cold but it wasn't deadly. "We have to work together right now. Is your pride worth your life?"

It wasn't going to cost me my life... Although, in the back of my mind, I knew that he made a valid point. If I wanted to survive the night I was going to have to listen to him and rely on his help. We stared at each other for a long time. He had the right idea. But I didn't want to be here, stuck alone with him, knowing that I would have to confront my feelings for him in some way. Kili shifted closer to me and removed his cloak, throwing it over my shoulders and buttoning it at the neck. As he moved away from me I felt his fingers gently brush against my throat.

"I'm not letting you die out here," Kili whispered.

"I-I'm not that cold," I said, my shiver instantly indicating the lie.

Kili merely smiled sadly as he shook his head. "You're turning blue. It's the onset of hypothermia," he commented. Yes... I'd already figured that one. "If you spend all night over there with nothing more than a thin cloak, you'll freeze."

"Give me my clothes back then."

"They're wet. That will only make you colder."

"We can't try getting back?"

Kili shook his head again. "It's too dark out there. You're too weak right now," he said. I bristled slightly at the thought of being called weak. I knew that he had a point about me being weak but it was still upsetting. I wasn't weak. I was just freezing. "We'll venture back in the morning." He motioned for me to move toward him. "Come here and warm up."

My heart was telling me, yes but my mind was telling me no. I would have loved to sleep with him again as I had become so used to doing. But I knew that it was a bad idea. I merely stared at him for a moment, watching my breath freeze in front of my eyes. There was no way that I could lay with him right now. We had tried so hard to fight our feelings for each other over the past few weeks. It was the reason we'd almost completely stopped speaking. Sleeping together again tonight would just set us back to square one.

"Do - Do you really think that's a - a good idea?" I stammered.

Kili's jaw dropped. I would have laughed at his shocked face if I could have. "Are you out of your mind?" Kili asked. I huffed at him. I was freezing, not insane. "This isn't about us right now. This is about making sure you live through the night."

"I w-will. The night's only a f-few hours long."

Kili rolled his eyes. "Get over here or I'll drag you over here."

"Don't boss me around," I snapped.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Kili asked.

"Old habits," I answered.

Unfortunately, I had always been a stubborn person. Mom and Dad used to have a terrible time getting me to do anything when I was a kid because I never wanted to listen to them. They thought that it was just a phase. It turned out that it had carried over into my adult life. Kili glared at me for a while as he tried to figure out what to do with me. I knew that I needed the warmth that would come from his body but I couldn't get over the fact that we would be right back to our old ways. Plus, there was the small issue that I wasn't wearing anything more than a pair of underwear and bra.

Under the cloak, at least. "I'm only in my underwear," I muttered awkwardly.

At least I hadn't worn a thong like a moron. Kili sighed, finally realizing why I was fighting against him so hard. "Leah... I would really like to not fight with you right now. Please, let's avoid the fight of me having to pick you up and drag you over here," Kili said politely. I let out a soft breath. Maybe I could just forget about my feelings... "I promise I won't look. We've been fighting and dancing around each other's feelings for weeks now. It doesn't need to happen in this cave."

"A-Alright," I stuttered.

"Come on. Lay down," Kili said.

He reached his arms out to me as I decided that I might as well just do it. I knew that he wouldn't let it go and I really didn't want to embarrass either one of us by making him pull me over to him. So, I mostly dragged myself over to him. His arms wound their way around my body as he pulled me into him, leaving not even an atom of space between us. He tucked my legs underneath his own and I sighed into his chest. I instantly warmed up just the slightest bit with him at my side but I was still a chattering mess. My entire body was locking up on me from the bitter cold.

It would have been almost impossible to do anything other than lay here. I could tell that he was doing anything in his power to keep me warm, running his hands up and down over my body. My face attempted to heat up - although it was still too cold to do so - as he slid his hands underneath the cloaks. His palms ran over my thighs and arms and occasionally brushed my stomach or hips. His palms were definitely chilly but they were warm compared to my own. I was extremely grateful for his touch.

Kili let me push my head down into his shoulder, so desperate for more heat. But I was certain that this was the most I would be getting tonight. He tucked his head over my own as my arms wound over his chest. It was just like the way that we used to sleep before we'd arrived in Rivendell but with much fewer clothes this time around. I tried to concentrate on the feeling of Kili's hands against my body instead of the cold. He certainly wasn't the first man to ever touch me but he was definitely the one that I cared for the most.

"Thorin would be furious about this," I whispered, desperate to break the tense silence.

"He'd be glad I'm not letting you die," Kili replied.

There was something slightly strained in his voice. I arched a brow curiously. Was he okay? Was he freezing now? I barely managed to raise my head enough to notice that he wasn't meeting my eyes. He was instead firmly focused on the ceiling of the cave. He didn't meet my eyes even when he realized that I was looking at him. In fact, he wouldn't look at me at all. It took me a long time to figure out why. It wasn't because he was cold. It was because he was as embarrassed about this entire situation as I was. I should have left it alone, but I had always been nosy.

"Have you n-never... touched someone before?" I asked bemusedly.

Kili finally met my eyes. "Are you laughing at me now?"

He sounded slightly hurt. I reached down to my thigh and pulled his hand off of it, threading our fingers together. "No. I - I think it's... romantic," I said slowly. It was honest. I'd always kind of liked the idea of only being with one person. "Waiting for the person you'll spend the rest of your life with."

Kili stared at me for a moment before smiling, seemingly finally realizing that I was telling him the truth. "That's the point."

"Sorry to have to ruin that," I mumbled.

"You've ruined nothing," Kili said, tightening his grip on my hand. "I just wish that we were somewhere else."

Yes, I definitely wished that we were somewhere else, too. I wished that we were on the private beach back near my house in Florida. We could have done whatever we wanted. Slept in the sand. Or with each other. I wasn't picky. We would have been warm. But I knew exactly what he meant. He wasn't upset that this was happening with me. He was upset that this was the way it was happening. I was, too. Kili raised my hand up to his mouth and pressed a kiss against the back of it. I tucked myself even further into his shoulder as the wind howled through the cave.

"You're not getting warmer," Kili said.

"I am," I mumbled.

But I wasn't. I was getting worse. Kili pulled my head up to meet his. "You don't always have to be strong, you know," he told me.

"No, I do," I countered.

That was my personality. I always had to be strong. I refused for the day to ever come that I could be weak. Not for a person and not for anything. The cold was horrible and so were my ever-growing feelings for Kili, but it was only for the night. We would be fine. We would go back to normal. Kili smiled sadly down at me as he tightened his grip around my waist. I leaned over and pressed my head down into his shoulder as the icy wind cut through me. The night was only beginning but it already felt like it had lasted for ages. How would we ever make it?

Fili's P.O.V.

Much like the rest of the dwarves, Fili was terrified that something had happened to Leah and Kili. He wasn't a fool. He knew that his brother could take care of himself. He knew that neither one of them were stupid enough to have not noticed what was coming. But there was still a problem. The storm set in quickly and sharply. He had no idea how far out they'd gone or if there was any cover near them. They had all gone in quick shifts to search for them but no one had had any luck so far. Thorin and Dwalin were the last to return almost two hours after Kili and Leah had gone missing.

Fili and the others jumped to their feet. Fili's heart sank when he realized that they were alone. "No sign of them?" Fili asked desperately.

"Nothing," Thorin confirmed.

Fili's stomach dropped. "They can't have wandered far," Dwalin pointed out. "How long did Kili say they would be?"

"Twenty minutes," Fili answered.

The two of them had now been gone for well over two hours - far longer than their original estimation. Thorin swore rather nastily in Khuzdul and whipped around to the rest of the company. "Who allowed them to leave?" he asked.

Fili immediately stepped in, knowing that his uncle was now extremely upset with her. "It wasn't her idea. It was Kili's," Fili said, knowing that it would just make his uncle upset with his brother. "He told me before they left. They needed time to speak to each other with no one else around. I told them that I would make an excuse if someone asked for them."

Thorin didn't look the slightest bit pleased with Fili for keeping the secret. "I would have told you that a storm was brewing if you had asked!" Thorin snapped angrily.

"If you had never said anything to them they wouldn't have felt the need to sneak off!" Fili shouted back.

"Enough!" Bilbo yelled, stepping in. The others looked shocked. Bilbo had never really raised his voice in an argument like that. "Arguing isn't helping. Leah and Kili are lost. We need to find them."

The others merely stared at him for a long time. No one really knew how to handle Bilbo when he was angry about something, having never seen it before. "I fear that we can't search for them in this kind of weather," Balin said calmly, trying to break into the tense conversation calmly. "We'll only end up getting more people lost or worse. They're no fools. They must have seen the storm brewing. They took cover."

"We can search the caves," Fili offered.

"It's highly unlikely that the cave they hid in is close enough to connect to this one," Gloin pointed out.

Thorin nodded his agreement. "We can't leave the cave in this storm. It's too strong. The lightning is dangerous for all of us," he added. He was right. If they went out to try and find Leah and Kili they would get themselves injured or lost. "They're both smart. They'll be hiding out until the storm's past or the morning comes."

"We do nothing tonight, then?" Bilbo asked breathlessly.

"They'll be alright. Keeping each other safe and warm. They have their weapons," Fili told him.

Neither one of them really looked convinced. "Dwalin... stay on watch," Thorin ordered. Dwalin nodded his consent. "We'll rotate. Keep an eye and ear out for them. We'll search for them first thing in the morning."

Everyone went about their own business but the tense air was still evident. Bilbo seated himself next to Fili, knowing that besides himself, he was the most concerned. "Do you think they'll be alright?" Bilbo asked.

"Yes. They'll be fine," Fili said confidently. "A little cold and wet and battered, but they'll be alright."

They all just had to believe that they would be alright. They would be just fine. A little bruised and battered but they would be okay. Fili spent most of the night sitting with Bilbo in the far corner of the cave. They were both obviously quite concerned about the two of them. They were both some of their best friends. Fili was terrified for the two of them but he also knew that tonight was going to give the two of them a much-needed chance to talk if nothing else. But that wasn't enough to relax him. He would be awake all night, waiting for first light when he could move out and find them.

Leah's P.O.V.

We had remained mostly silent over the last few hours. It was probably for the best. We mostly just remained locked together, our hands slowly moving over the other to try and keep the body heat flowing. I was glad that we weren't speaking. We didn't really have anything to say to each other. We were both trying to save energy and avoid obvious statements. We were trying to avoid having to have a conversation about our feelings. It was better to just remain quiet and wait out the storm, which seemed to have only gotten worse.

"It's freezing in here," I whispered, finally breaking the long silence.

"I know. I know," Kili said, his own teeth beginning to chatter slightly. "I'm sorry for dragging us out here."

"It's not your fault. You wanted to train just like you promised. It's not your fault."

"But so much of this is."

"What are you talking about?"

"Everything, Leah. This entire situation is my fault."

"It's not your fault that it's freezing outside and pouring rain."

"That is not what I meant and you know that," Kili said pointedly. "I mean with us…"

"Don't -"

"I need to say this," Kili interrupted. I merely nodded, unwilling to fight him on this one. "I wouldn't have pushed you to go out and train so hard if I hadn't just wanted a minute alone with you. I ignored the warning signs of a very obvious storm and strayed too far from the company. I wanted to have a conversation away from everyone else and this was the way to do it. If I had been honest with you from the very beginning -"

"There was no being honest. We both know that," I said over him. "We didn't know how fast or strong our feelings would grow."

"No. I suppose I never could have imagined."

"I don't blame you for this. Any of it."

"You should."

"But I don't," I said honestly. I'd never blamed him. If nothing else, I'd always blamed Thorin. "No matter what, I'm glad that I got to meet you."

Kili smiled slightly. "As am I, Leah."

The two of us smiled at each other again. My stomach jolted slightly at the look on his face. The look in his eyes that no one else had ever given me. His hands slowly tightened around me as I laid back against his shoulder. I noticed that, as time passed, Kili became mess conscious of where he was touching me. His hands very slowly and gently wandered against my skin, dropping lower than they dared to before. I reached over and laid a hand against his chest while throwing a leg over his. No words were exchanged between us. We didn't need to talk right now.

There was nothing to say. The only thing that mattered right now was that we were together. Despite everything, we were still together. We could still sit here and be just those two people who cared. We didn't know anything more but that was all that we needed. After a while, I began shivering uncontrollably. The cold was getting to me even worse than before. I knew that I had never been this cold in my entire life. I was from Florida and not at all used to this kind of weather. Kili's arms tightened around me but they did very little for my warmth.

"You need something more," Kili said, finally realizing that I was actually freezing.

"There isn't anything more other than dirt and rocks," I said. Kili nodded thoughtfully as he moved to sit up. I immediately reached for his arms to pull him back to me. "Don't leave."

The thought of having him leave me - both alone and freezing to death - was unbearable. Kili reached down and grabbed my hands reassuringly. "I'm not leaving. I'm not," he promised quietly. "But you need more material if we want to make it through the night. That's not enough."

"There's n-nothing else to w-wear," I stammered.

"My tunic," Kili suggested.

If I did that, I would leave him in almost nothing. "N - No. W - What a-about you?" I asked weakly.

Kili merely smiled sadly. "I'll manage. Dwarves are built to be able to withstand cold weather like this," he explained. Was that enough to keep him warm for the night? "You're tiny, Leah. You can't manage this."

"You're cold, though," I said, seeing his body tremble.

"Not as much as you."

"Please, don't -"

But my voice dropped off when he completely pulled out of my grip. I was unable to fight back against it. I couldn't hang onto his body and he was prying me off of himself anyway. He wasn't letting me get away with this one. My voice went completely silent as I watched Kili peel the tunic over his shoulders. There was nothing beside his bare skin underneath it. There was a sudden jolt in my stomach. This was seriously not the right time to be thinking about that. Although it would be one surefire way to warm the both of us up.

Not that he would be willing to do that. Kili's voice broke me from my reverie. "I didn't watch you when you undressed."

In the back of my mind, I wished that he had. I wished we'd just gotten it over with back then. But this was... more romantic, I supposed. "You got us s-stuck out here. A - At least let m-me have a little bit of f-fun," I teased.

Kili smiled. "That's fair."

At least he didn't think that I was completely insane for thinking about something like that at a time like this. I was just being honest. Kili's hands worked at the laces on his tunic as he completely removed it from his body. I smiled at him. He was finally left completely bare from the waist up. He was exactly as I had imagined and even better. His chest was tanned from what I assumed were likely days working in the sun. He grabbed my own hand and pulled me up to him. My body was clenched with anticipation. I couldn't move. So, he decided to help me.

It was good. I needed help. The most I could do was barely flex my fingers. There was no way I could have pulled the tunic on myself. He pulled my body up against his. This time there was no embarrassment in his eyes when he undid the button at my throat and pulled the cloak off of my shoulders. He must have been slightly uncomfortable but he said nothing about it. His eyes only briefly strayed down to my body before snapping back up to my face. Now I could see it. He was incredibly embarrassed about looking at me.

"Y - You can look," I said weakly. Kili laughed. "It's really okay."

"No," Kili said firmly. "Not while you're like this."

That was the kind of man he was. He wouldn't even sneak a peak when he knew that I was incapacitated from the bitter cold. He was the kind of gentlemanly I'd always wanted. I smiled at him again. These were the moments that made me adore him even more than I already did. Kili pulled his tunic over my shoulders and tightened the laces at my chest before throwing the cloak back over my shoulders. He clasped it before grabbing my hands and pulling me back to the ground with him again, placing himself toward the wind.

Anything that he could do to keep me warm, I knew he would do. My stomach warmed slightly. As much as it possibly could in this chill. We cuddled together as close as we could. I had never liked the cold before, but I loved it right now. It was finally putting the pieces of our relationship back together. Kili gently pressed a kiss up against my forehead as I gave a pathetically small smile. It was all I could manage. His arms were completely encircling my body but it did little to warm me up. I could see my own skin turning a deeper blue.

"Come closer," Kili said.

"I'm pressed up against you," I argued.

"More, Leah. Please," Kili begged.

"I - I can't move."

"It's alright."

My body was so pathetically useless that I would have been mortified at any other time. Kili reached over and grabbed me underneath the arms, lifting me practically effortlessly on top of himself. He tucked my arms underneath his back to warm my hands up. His torso was radiating warmth but the wind was cutting through me like ice. He wrapped our legs together and ran his arms around my back, underneath my shirt, to press his bare skin against mine. Then he wrapped his tunic back around his hands to warm them up. His head tucked down against mine.

His warm breath tickled behind my neck and against my face. "Better?" Kili asked, his lips moving against my forehead.

"Slightly."

"Good."

It was the truth. I was slightly warmer than before. But I was still freezing. "Believe it or not, despite the cold, this is probably the most comfortable I've been in a while," I whispered to him.

"It feels right, doesn't it?" Kili replied.

"It does."

For the first time in a month, we were back together for the night. It wasn't the way I had imagined it to be but I supposed that I was grateful it could happen one more time. It didn't take me long to realize that Kili's fingers were tracing across my bare back. If I didn't already have goosebumps I knew that I would have gotten them. I let out a soft breath as I placed my head into the crook of his throat. His head turned to me and I felt his lips trail gently across my forehead. I smiled at him. This was right. This was where I was supposed to be.

"Guess it gives us a chance to just... be without having to worry about anyone seeing us," I said quietly, breaking the silence.

"I shouldn't have said anything to you in Rivendell," Kili said determinedly.

"Thorin asked you to step back. You had to say something," I pointed out.

It would have weighed on his mind more and more every day if he hadn't said something. "Perhaps. But I should have never said it the way that I did. I should have taken more time to collect my thoughts and find a better way to explain it," Kili said.

"We both know that it wouldn't have ever felt right," I pointed out.

"Because it's not right," Kili responded immediately.

There wasn't a hint of hesitation in his voice. It surprised even me. I raised my head up off of Kili's chest to look him in the eyes. He was already staring down at me, the intensity of his eyes boring right through me. I shivered slightly as I dropped back onto him. It definitely wasn't from the cold. Not this time. No. This time it was from the look he was giving me. That desire deep in his eyes. Absolutely not. Kili didn't say anything more. Instead, he continued tracing patterns over the bare skin of my back. If I wasn't so freezing I knew that I would already be nodding off to sleep.

"What are you writing?" I asked quietly.

"What?" Kili asked.

"Talk to me. I need something to keep me alert. Tell me what you're writing. I feel you doing it."

"My name. Yours," Kili admitted. I smiled at him. We remained in silence for a long time before he spoke again. "Would you like me to tell you what I thought of you when I first met you?"

"Should we really be doing this?" I asked.

"Might be our last night together. We should talk about things," Kili said, only half-teasingly.

I laughed weakly. "Go ahead."

He tightened his grip on me slightly. "I thought that you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen," Kili said. My smile widened slightly. "When I saw you, the first thing that went through my mind was that you were different. Something clicked. I knew that we would get along. I knew that there was already something there."

He really thought that I was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen? That had to be a slight over-exaggeration. I lifted my head off his chest to look at him. He didn't look like he was exaggerating at all. He wasn't smiling at me at all. He merely stared at me with a look that made my toes curl. A feeling I'd rarely felt without some alcohol. My hands gently slipped down his bare chest toward the bottom of his stomach. I could feel his muscles tense slightly underneath my touch. How he had managed to control himself this far, I would never know.

"Want to know what I think of you right now?" I offered, trying to distract myself.

"Something not very nice, I would assume," Kili responded.

"You would be wrong," I said.

Although a few days ago he would have been right. But things were different right now. After getting a chance to speak to him, at least. We both laughed as my hands drew up against the side of his chest and made their way to the bare skin over his pectoral muscles. My heart was hammering against my ribs. One of his hands left my back to wrap itself in my hair. His fingers rested on the base of my skull as he gently tugged me down to him. We moved closer and closer. Our noses had just barely brushed against each other's when I pulled back.

"No. No," I breathed, shaking my head and trying to remember myself. "We're not going to die tonight. If that happens… it's just something more that we have to deal with."

"I don't think I care anymore," Kili said breathlessly.

"You do. It's why you said something in the first place."

"Can't remember why I said anything."

"Because you're a good man who loves his uncle and his people. You know where your duties lie."

Kili merely stared down at me. "What of you?" he asked.

"I'm a girl who can take care of herself," I answered tonelessly.

"It's one of my favorite things about you," Kili responded.

We could take care of ourselves. Both of us. But that didn't change the fact that we wanted to be together. Two independent people together. We might have made a wonderful team. I smiled weakly up at Kili as he leaned his head down and pressed it into the crook of my neck. I smiled, turning my head into his. I blushed slightly when I felt his lips brushing gently against my throat. The heat of his breath finally threatened to warm me up slightly. I could feel his mouth trailing down against the edge of my throat. I shuddered slightly.

My hands tightened around his bare chest slightly. My nails likely didn't feel very good digging into his skin, but he said nothing about it. It was at moments like these that I knew, in the back of my mind, that I really was in love with him. I had never felt anything even moderately close to anyone as to what I felt for Kili. I was so damned desperate to kiss him that it was almost embarrassing. I had never felt this way about anyone. My head slowly turned into his own, the excitement building in me. I just wanted to kiss him. And, damn it, I wanted to sleep with him too.

"You have no idea how hard it is not to kiss you," Kili whispered.

My stomach fluttered slightly. "No, I know. Because I feel the same."

"But?"

"We don't need to say the obvious. You know what the problem is. You know why this can't happen. We'll only be right back to square one. With even more in between us."

Kili let out a soft breath. "Is it possible to miss someone who's right there?"

"It's possible to miss what you once had. It's possible to miss what you hoped that you would have," I said quietly.

We both missed each other. Even though we were right next to each other, we would likely always miss that spark between us that we'd been forced to stamp out. Kili stared down at me for a long time as a shiver ran up and down my spine. I was definitely freezing. But I couldn't tell if my latest physical reaction was because I was cold or because I was nervous to be completely alone with him. All night long... I knew that it hadn't been more than a few hours since we had first gotten trapped in here. We had a long night left.

"What time do you think it is?" I asked quietly.

"It won't be light for another few hours. Trying to get away from me?" Kili teased.

"Before something happens that neither of us can take back."

"I don't know, Leah," Kili finally answered, referring to the time. "What if it does happen?"

"It can't. Because we're going to leave this cave and we both know that it can't be left here. It's not something that we're going to be able to take back once it happens."

"What if I don't want to take it back?"

"Do you think that's for the best?"

"I do," Kili answered immediately.

At least I knew that we agreed on that. "Maybe it is," I agreed with him quietly. He smiled. "But it's just for us. Not in general. Not with the rest of the company. It's like you said. We're getting out of here. Once we do, we'll have to deal with whatever happened in here."

We didn't say anything for a long time. I knew that I had upset him. He didn't like hearing that I wasn't agreeing with him on this. I merely stared up at Kili while shivering even worse in the cold. His arms immediately wound around me a little bit tighter, trying desperately to keep me warm. He leaned down slightly to press another kiss against my temple. I smiled and curled into him. I had missed this - just being able to sleep with him. Be around him without tension. Being real friends with him. But it didn't change the fact that I was still in love with him.

Finally, I couldn't take the itching in the back of my mind. "Tell me something," I said.

"All right."

"You know that I'm a human. You know that I'll die long before you do."

Kili was silent for a long time as he processed that information. "I'm aware."

"Do you think that's fair?" I asked.

"To me?"

"Yes."

If I died, even of old age, that would be so many years he'd have to live without me. How was that fair? To ask him to live half of his life alone. It wasn't. Once more, Kili was silent for a long time. Even if we ultimately got the chance to be together there would still be so many problems. Reminding him of our lifespan difference was the one thing I could remind him of. It was the one thing that would have been a real issue, even without Thorin's meddling. It wasn't fair to either one of us. Having to fall in love only to die long before the other one would.

"At this point, I don't think that I care," Kili finally said.

"Think of how you feel right now. Amplify those feelings for seventy years or so. Then imagine having to watch me die and being unable to do anything about it," I said. Kili twitched slightly. "It would just be old age."

"Think of those seventy years we could have together," Kili countered.

"As for Thorin?"

"He would get over it."

He sounded so determined that it almost surprised me. "Why did you say anything to me? That night on the bridge?" I asked. Kili remained silent. "Especially since you clearly didn't want to take a step back."

He thought about his answer for a long time. "Because I made a promise to Thorin. A promise that I have tried very hard to keep. But I don't think that I can any longer."

"How hard have you really tried?" I asked.

"As hard as I care to."

He turned his head down to look at me with a playful grin. I smiled slightly. I didn't need him to tell me that he hadn't really tried that hard to avoid me or just be friends with me. Since talking to Thorin about our relationship, Kili had continued to try and find ways to talk and interact with me. In some ways, even harder than he had before. I had noticed that much and I was positive that Thorin had noticed too. But there was something else that was bothering me. The thought that Tauriel would still come into his life in a few months.

"What if there's someone else out there?" I asked curiously.

Kili looked down at me, surprised. "We're not like mortal men. Dwarves don't believe in that," Kili answered. I raised a brow. "We believe that each person has a One."

"A what?" I asked dumbly.

Was that part of the movie? "One. It's something that I didn't believe in until... recently," Kili said slowly, giving me a piercing gaze. I blushed slightly under his stare. "There is one person on this world that you are bound to, body and soul. There may be others that cross paths but when we meet our One, we know."

"You just know?" I asked.

"We know," Kili confirmed.

My stomach fluttered slightly. It was an incredibly romantic theory. But... "What happens if the One doesn't work out?"

"We find something else to occupy our time."

"If you're a royal?"

I'd only said it because I knew that it was exactly what Thorin was thinking. I wasn't a royal and would therefore never be good enough for his nephew. "You marry because of a duty to the throne. Not necessarily for love," Kili told me. I frowned at him. "You can grow fond of your spouse. But it's rare to find actual love."

It sounded like something out of the ancient rule book from the British Royal Family. It barely sounded like it should have been real. But this was like the Middle Ages back in the old world. Antiquated traditions. That idea seemed so cold and calculating. Possibly never getting to marry someone you genuinely loved. Marrying for titles. I wanted Kili to get the chance to be with someone he loved who genuinely made him happy. Whether or not that was me... I just wanted him to be happy. Although, I definitely would prefer if it were with me.

"What about your mother?" I asked curiously.

Wasn't she technically royal? Had she loved his father? "I do believe she loved my father," Kili answered eventually. "But they fell in love out of duty. Not because they just loved each other. That's what I want."

"Sentimental," I said.

"Everyone deserves to find love," Kili told me.

"I guess in Rohan we just don't believe that people can fall in love like that. Enough that they would be willing to sacrifice everything. So positive that they're doing the right thing. People just... enjoy themselves," I said stupidly. "That's why the company fascinates me so much. The unwavering love that you all have for each other. How deep it runs. Life-or-death relationships. I've always just kind of been with guys... I don't know why. They were just there."

"Do you still believe that?" Kili asked.

"You know the answer to that question," I said.

We stared at each other for a long time. He knew the truth. He knew that I had finally found someone who I could have considered a One. I had somehow managed to fall stupidly in love with him. I knew that the love was reciprocated on his behalf. I knew exactly what that kind of love was like right now. I had found a real partner in Kili. I had found myself in the position that I would do anything for him. I was literally willing to potentially end up dying on this journey just to save him during the Battle of the Five Armies.

"Do you remember when I promised to give you a gift?" Kili asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes."

His arm briefly left my side. I raised my head slightly to look and see what he was doing. He reached down into one of the pockets of his trousers and I blushed slightly. Stop thinking about that, damn it. Kili fished around in the pocket for a moment before he pulled something out. It was a tiny stone. For a moment I merely stared at it blankly as he pressed the cold stone into my hand. What the hell was he giving me a rock for? I had no idea what it was. That was also when it dawned on me. I knew exactly what it was. It was the stone he had given Tauriel. Now he was giving it to me...

"What is it?" I asked, realizing that I wasn't supposed to know what it was.

"It is a talisman," Kili said darkly. "A powerful spell lies upon it. If any but a dwarf reads the runes on this stone, they will be forever cursed."

For the briefest moment, I thought that I'd gotten the story about the stone completely wrong. Kili quickly held the stone up to me. I jumped back in his arms slightly, surprised at the fierce look on his face. I made a move to kick him away from me or whack him in the head as I realized that he was just messing with me. But I also knew that I was supposed to be slightly nervous, so I tried to force a scared look on my face. I began to turn away from him but stopped when he spoke again, in a laughing manner this time.

"Or not, depending on whether you believe that kind of thing. It's just a token."

He was still chuckling as I rolled my eyes at him. He was such a fool. But he was a fool that I wouldn't have traded for the world. I genuinely loved being around him. Kili smiled down at me and I smiled as well. My arms wound back around his waist to pull myself onto his body. Kili chuckled under his breath as I punched him in the stomach, annoyed that he got to me even for a moment. Kili only laughed even louder as he tightened his grip on me. I started laughing again, too.

"Look at that. I managed to get you to laugh," Kili said.

"You've always been able to do that," I pointed out.

Kili smiled and motioned down to the stone in his hand. "It's a runestone. My mother gave it to me so I'd remember my promise," he explained.

"What promise?"

"That I will come back to her."

It was a pure and beautiful promise, just like Tauriel had said in the film. I remembered the butterflies I'd felt when I'd watched it in the movie. He hadn't made a promise to a girlfriend or told some pretty dwarf woman he'd come back to her without really meaning it. He had made the promise to his loving mother. As soon as I'd smiled I looked down. My mind turned to my true task in Middle Earth - not getting a boyfriend. If I didn't succeed, he would never get the chance to return to his mother. I had to succeed. I wouldn't let him die.

"She worries. She thinks I'm reckless," Kili continued.

"I wonder why that would be," I teased.

"We both know I'm not."

"We're not in the position to say that you're not being reckless."

"It's not reckless. It's right," Kili said.

His voice had gone from teasing to serious in a matter of seconds. My stomach fluttered slightly. I looked at Kili for a few moments before turning back away. This was getting too deep. I could see Kili frowning at me. We both wanted this to go further but I was trying to stop it as he tried to further it. He looked as though he was deciding something. He finally reached over and grabbed my hand, pressing the black stone into it, folding my fingers closed over it. I gasped in surprise as he took my hands and held them up against his heart.

"Keep it. As a promise," Kili whispered.

"A promise?"

"That I will find a way back to you. No matter what Thorin says or wants, I will come back to you."

My stomach bubbled slightly. I stared at him for a long time, trying to make sense of what was happening. The answer itself was quite simple. I realized, at that moment, just how much I meant to him. He was willing to sacrifice his own relationship with Thorin and his position to the throne just to be with me. None of it mattered to him. Not nearly as much as I did, at least. His fingers tugged gently at the tunic I was wearing. My gaze slowly turned up to meet his. I knew what was going to happen next. I always had.

"Oh no…" I mumbled.

"What?" Kili asked worriedly.

"I think I'm about to do something stupid," I answered.

In a matter of hours, this would likely be the stupidest thing I could have done. But that was hours away. I didn't want to think about that just yet. Kili merely stared at me blankly for a moment. His lips then tilted up in a small smile. He had finally understood what I was talking about. I smiled playfully at him. This was such a moronic idea. I knew that this would only end up making things worse between us. But I couldn't stop. I just had to know. I kept Kili's runestone folded in my palm, which Kili had pressed up against my heart.

His free hand meandered up my torso to rest in my hair. His fingers twirled around the shafts of my hair as he pushed the damp strands back. I gave him a slight smile as my heart gave a pathetic twinge. Kili grinned down at me. His arms wound around my torso tightly as my legs moved to fall in between his. It wasn't going to be the first kiss either one of us were expecting, but I knew that it was right.

I'd prepared myself for anything to happen. I didn't believe that the two of us would actually get a chance to kiss. Much to my surprise, we weren't interrupted. It was finally here. Neither one of us pulled back. Just one. For just this one night we could be together. His fingers twisted into my hair and I allowed him to tug me down to him. Our lips finally connected, gently brushing against each other's. My heart was hammering against my chest. Or was that his? I didn't know or care. This was the first kiss that I had wanted. Gentle. But the fireworks were still there.

His lips moved against mine briefly before he tilted his head back. We were about to deepen the kiss. My stomach fluttered again. Before we really got the chance to enjoy each other - before I could kiss him like I really meant it - a blast of icy wind shot through the cave blowing in bitterly cold raindrops. It took seconds for the two of us to get soaked to the bone. I yelped in horror as Kili rolled us over and away from the entrance of the cave, shielding my body with his. The wind howled through the cave, blowing rain and mud into us.

The wind and rain took a long time to calm down. We just continued to try and shield ourselves from the rain as best we could. Even once the rain had stopped, Kili didn't move off of me. My heart was racing from the almost-kiss. We had just barely gotten a chance to genuinely be together. I was also terrified at what had just almost happened. We were in the middle of an extremely gentle kiss. But it was a kiss nonetheless. I just wished that we could have been together longer. I had really wanted to be back with him.

Unfortunately, we were both now very likely going to get hypothermia. My cloak was soaked all the way through. So were all of the clothes that I was wearing underneath it. None of Kili's clothes were dry either. We were both completely drenched. The tunic that Kili had given me was at least only moderately damp and my second cloak - my own, not the one Kili had given me - was still dry in some spots. This thing hadn't worked well for either one of us. Kili looked freezing as I wrapped my arms back around him.

"Are you all right?" Kili asked.

"Freezing and really wet but I'm okay," I said honestly. "Are you?"

"Now I'm cold," Kili said, laughing.

"Come here."

Just by touching his skin I could tell that he was freezing. His body was icy to the touch. We both curled up together again as I tucked my head into Kili's bare chest. My hair likely didn't feel very good on him but he said nothing. I wondered if his mind was still on the half-kiss. My face would have heated up at the embarrassment of the failed kiss, but I was way too cold to manage it. The only way I knew that we could get dry was if we took off all of our clothes and laid them out. But there was no way that I was doing that or letting him do that.

"You know, I think that's the universe telling us that we're just not meant to be together," I muttered quietly.

"Do you honestly believe that?" Kili asked.

"I… I don't know, Kili," I stammered awkwardly. "I really don't."

"Look at me," Kili whispered.

Was it a good idea? Absolutely not. Was I going to do it anyway? Absolutely. Heart pounding against my chest, I very slowly turned to look at Kili, still shivering like mad, my damp hair pressed against my face. Kili's dark hair fell like a curtain over my face. His eyes bored into mine. I didn't know what I was supposed to say right now. Was there even anything appropriate for this kind of moment? His lips turned up in a playful grin.

"Leah… amrâlimê," Kili whispered.

It was the same thing he had said to me a few weeks ago when we had been on our way to Rivendell. I hadn't known what it had meant back then. I stared at him for a long time, processing the word. It was familiar. Because I finally knew where I'd heard it. It was the same thing he had said to Tauriel before they had launched the boat to travel to Erebor. I finally knew what it meant. At least, I was reasonably positive that I knew what it meant. Especially with the way that he smiled at me. But I was so embarrassed. I didn't know how to respond. Did I?

"I still don't know what that means," I whispered back.

Kili grinned. "I think you do."

Yes, I did. But... "I've never said that to anyone," I muttered dumbly.

It was the truth. Of the many things I'd said to people, I had never told someone that. Even through the longest relationships I'd had, I had never dared say those three little words to anyone. I had always wanted to really mean it when I said it for the first time and I simply hadn't ever felt it before. I stared blankly at Kili as the words lodged in my throat. I didn't know how to respond to him. I hadn't ever said it to Brian and I had come closest with him. He had said it to me but had also told me that I didn't have to respond. And I never had.

"Neither have I," Kili admitted. I swallowed thickly. He'd never said it? "Don't say it back. Not until you're sure."

"But -"

"Try and sleep," Kili interrupted.

I knew that he didn't want me to say something I wasn't ready to say just because I felt guilty. "I don't think I can," I told him.

"Try."

Leaning further into his arms, I tucked myself up against his side. "You've really never said it to anyone?"

"Never. I wanted to wait for the right person."

"Did you?" I asked carefully.

"Yes," Kili said.

"But she didn't even respond," I pointed out.

Kili smiled. "I know her answer."

Perhaps this was one of those times where Kili knew me better than I knew myself. There was a bubbling in my chest that told me that he was right. But I couldn't force the words out of my throat. So, I focused on something else. I laid up against his chest, trying to take in any body heat from him I could. For a long time, I couldn't fall asleep, partially because I was freezing and partially because there was something else on my mind. I knew that what I was about to do was so wrong. But just one wouldn't hurt that badly... I just needed to know...

"Kili?" I whispered. He hummed in response. "What would you say if I asked you to kiss me?"

His head lifted up from the cave floor to look at me. "I would say… do you even need to ask?"

"Will you?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Are you saying no?" I asked.

"Of course not!" Kili gasped.

I smiled at him. "I don't know what will happen after tonight. But I don't think I can keep trying to be your friend without even knowing what could have been."

"What is. This still is," Thorin told me. "I think it always will be."

"But never in front of Thorin. The rest of your friends and family," I told him, frowning. "We both know how that'll go for us. So, I guess this can be our little secret."

"You're not my secret, Leah. Everyone will always know."

"Even about this?"

"I will be able to do this in front of them one day."

Even if Thorin got over it, there were still so many other problems. "What about my -?"

"Leah… you said something to me once. About taking things one step at a time," Kili interrupted, smiling bitterly at me. "You told your children that when you taught them. It was like learning to walk. You crawl and then walk and then run. Do you want to worry about the future right now?"

"No," I answered. "I already worry about it too much."

"I've seen."

We both laughed as I leaned up to him. Kili slowly leaned down to me. Just do it, you big baby. You both want it. In the back of my mind, I knew that this was a monstrous mistake. Tauriel was still going to come into his life in a few months. I was blatantly ignoring Thorin's request to stay away from his nephew. But the others believed that we were supposed to be together. Some of them had even thrown their support or suggested that we give it a try. But Kili died in the end... But for right now... for this one moment... I could be with him...

Much to my surprise, Kili didn't hesitate. He had definitely done the right thing. Because that was how badly he'd wanted this. It was how badly we'd both wanted it. He wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and pulled my head to meet his. When our lips met in the first real kiss there were... yes... fireworks. There was no better way to put it. The passion between us was like nothing else. He tilted my head back and I drank in his taste, knowing that this might be the only time we would ever get a chance to do this.

His hands wound around my back and his fingers dug into every bare bit of skin they could find. Mine did the same. As I brought my arms up to wrap around his back, my nails gently scratched his bare skin. Kili's legs wound in between mine, holding me firmly in place. The deeper the kiss became, the harder we pressed ourselves against the other. Not a single part of us wasn't touching. The kiss had so much heat behind it that I was stunned. It was more than I had ever felt with anyone. Brian - and anyone before him - could have never compared to Kili.

A pit that felt like it was on fire formed in my stomach as Kili's thumb brushed my jaw, holding my mouth against his. If we were back in the old world there was no doubt in my mind that we wouldn't have continued until we had gotten to know each other much better. We never broke apart to breathe, as much as I desperately needed to. But I refused to leave him for even a moment, instead, allowing my body to writhe against his as he kissed me deeper and deeper, crushing me into the cave floor, not daring to break our link.

It was clear to both of us that this wasn't going to end anytime soon. I smiled into the kiss as Kili pinned every bit of my body underneath his. He kept me firmly against himself, the kiss becoming deeper and deeper. His hands were tearing through the fabric of my shirt, wrapping them tighter and tighter. In the old world, I assumed that he would have already torn it off. This was what it was like to kiss someone who you knew you couldn't stop with. This was a real kiss. It just took me twenty-two years to find someone to give me one.

There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that Kili knew what he was doing. His hands wrapped around my body as they progressively tightened against my ribs. He tilted my head back slightly to wrap his fingers against my spine. Whether or not Kili had ever done this before, I didn't care. I had a feeling he might have but it wasn't a question for right now. Because I didn't care either. I didn't care for the near hour that we kissed. I only pulled back from him when I literally couldn't breathe anymore.

Removing my lips from his felt wrong. It felt like we needed to be back together. Both panting as though we had just run a mile, the two of us laughed at each other the slightest bit. I was almost surprised that he didn't look awkward. Wasn't he supposed to be super pure? That didn't feel pure. But he did look as flushed as I felt. Kili leaned down and kissed me gently a few more times, all of those much smaller and cuter. Once he finally pulled away from me, I laid down against his chest, so happy that I had finally kissed him, but well aware that I would never forget that.

One of his hands laid down against my hip. The other gently stroked the bare skin underneath my tunic. "You should try and sleep. The sun will rise soon and we can be on our way. But you need energy," Kili said.

"Trust me, that gave me energy," I teased.

Kili smiled. "I won't ever forget that."

"Me either."

We stayed in silence for a few seconds before Kili spoke again. "Might I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How did it compare?"

There was something moderately teasing in his voice. I laughed as I gently whacked him in the shoulder. "Trust me, nothing could have compared to that," I told him honestly.

"Good," Kili said.

We both laughed again as his hands tightened around me again. His fingers dug into my skin almost painfully. I knew for a fact that his touch would leave marks for a week but I didn't care. It was all worth it. One of Kili's arms wrapped underneath my back again to press into the small of my back. His fingers were so long that they reached my other hip and rested against it. His hands were icy but I didn't dare ask him to remove it as he stroked the bare skin. After all, the kiss had managed to warm me up.

"How much longer do you think we have?" I asked after a while, finally breaking the silence.

"Three or four hours, more than likely," Kili answered.

"Three or four hours and back to normal," I whispered sadly.

"Not yet."

His fingers gently turned my head to face him. I stared deep into his brown eyes. "We're making things worse."

The kiss would be hard enough to forget. Kissing him again would make things even tougher. "Kiss me," Kili commanded gently. I stared at him blankly for a moment, surprised by his words. He smiled, stroking my back again. "No matter what happens, we won't have another moment like this for a long time. Completely in private. Kiss me."

If there was a good argument for kissing him, that was it. So, I nodded at him, unable to do much more. Whether or not we ever worked out, this would be the last time that we would be truly alone until we arrived in Erebor. Kili leaned down and we met lips again. This kiss was softer but just as deep. There was still that lingering desperation to do something more. But he wasn't nearly ready and this was perfect. I smiled as Kili placed a hand underneath my waist and turned us, lifting me into his lap. All of those nights spent dreaming about this moment and now it was finally here.

I sat with my legs on either end of his hips as his hands went up to root themselves in my hair. We kissed for such a long time that I was positive that it must have been daylight by the time we broke apart. But somehow it wasn't. Even if it had been, I wasn't sure that I was quite ready to pull away from him. Not if it meant potentially having to return to just being friends. Instead, our hands searched each other's bodies, committing every part of our bodies to memory. I was surprised at the ferocity Kili both kissed and searched my body with.

It was the kind of intensity that I would have expected from someone who was so desperate to sleep with the other. But this was something else. It was our way to show each other what we had felt when we had been unable to say it. This was the kind of kiss that made you forget everything. I could have forgotten my name given the chance. I would have forgotten to breathe or eat. I could have died because I had forgotten to do anything. I could have forgotten why we couldn't be together.

It was a long time before Kili broke away from the kiss. "I'll talk to Thorin," Kili said breathlessly.

"What?" I asked, stunned.

Was now the time to tell me that he was going to have a conversation with his uncle? "Give him some time to get used to this," Kili said. Now I got it. He was trying to tell me that he was going to talk to Thorin about the two of us being together... "But I have to talk to Thorin about this. After this… I can never look at you the way I have tried so hard to."

It would ruin their relationship... "But -"

"Leah," Kili interrupted.

"What?"

"Be young. Live in the moment."

Potentially ruin their relationship? "You're too carefree," I told him.

"Isn't that the point of being young?" Kili asked, grinning.

"Your mother was right. You are reckless," I said.

"Nah."

This was not a good idea. Not even in the slightest. But that wasn't going to stop me from doing it. Because I never really had thought about the smart thing. Only what I'd wanted at the moment. I giggled as Kili pulled me in for another kiss. My heart fluttered against my chest. Maybe we really could be together. Maybe we really would be able to make this work. My body was still ice cold from the freezing wind but I relaxed for the first time in hours. I wasn't sure when it happened, but eventually, I fell asleep.

We might not have ever completely drifted off. I felt his hands gently moving against my skin all night long. He never fell asleep. Instead, he watched over me all through the night. When I officially woke up in the morning, the sun was streaming in through the cave opening. The storm had finally passed. I cracked an eye open and smiled up at Kili. He was staring down at me as his hands gently traveled over my thighs. Once I warmed up and could move again, we would have to be on our way. The others would be panicking by now.

"We should leave. They'll be worried about us," I whispered to Kili.

"Yes," he responded.

But he didn't leave me and I got a funny feeling that he wasn't going to. Not right now, anyway. Not until he had to. Much to my surprise, the sun was barely cracking through the clouds. It left a beautiful ray of sun flooding over us. I could only believe that it was to signal a new dawn. But Kili was only focused on me. He leaned over to me and pulled me in for another kiss. I smiled into the kiss as I reached up to grab his hand to keep it against my neck. He kept his hand wrapped around my own. Eventually, we heard shouts off in the distance.

"Kili!" Thorin shouted.

"Leah!" Bilbo yelled.

"Kili! Leah!" Fili howled.

"They're here," I told Kili quietly, not that I needed to.

"Hang on," Kili whispered.

He looked like he was moving into me again. For another kiss. "Your brother and uncle and friends are worried sick about you," I pointed out.

"Another minute won't kill them," Kili teased.

"Your mother was right. You are reckless," I told him.

It hadn't taken me long to realize that Kili really was reckless. But I had always thought that it was rather cute. Plus, I was quite reckless myself. I laughed again as Kili pulled me in for a final, bruising kiss. This was likely the last time we would get to kiss for a long time. I knew that the conversation with Thorin was one that would have to be handled gently and might take more than one try. I smiled into the final kiss again as Kili pressed himself into me before finally breaking apart. He didn't look away from me once.

"In here!" Kili bellowed.

Despite having known that he would do that, I still jumped slightly. He grinned playfully at me. There was a brief silence in which I could hear the dwarves outside the cave begin running toward us. Their shouts and the scuffling of their feet echoed as they finally stumbled into the cave entrance. All of the dwarves - and Bilbo - looking shocked at the sight of Kili and me curled up together. I tried to untangle myself from him slightly. Thorin ran ahead of the rest of them and immediately pulled off his fur cloak, draping it over me.

"Are you alright?" Thorin asked me.

I was almost surprised that he had given it to me and not his nephew. "Yeah. Thank you," I said quietly.

Thorin nodded. "Keep that wrapped around you for a while."

"Leah," Bilbo said, running over and giving me a hand back to my feet. "We were so worried about you."

"Thanks, but we were alright. The storm set in kind of suddenly. We had to take cover as quickly as we could. Kili didn't want to risk moving around in the storm," I told them.

"You did the right thing, staying and waiting it out," Thorin said, looking between us.

"Leah needs to eat and gather her strength back. Humans aren't made to withstand weather like that," Kili told the others.

It had been hours since I'd eaten or been truly warm. I would definitely be useless for most of the day. "There should be deeper caves further up the mountain pass. We'll stop and light a fire. Bombur can make you something to eat and something warm to drink," Balin told me. I smiled at him. "It may be a good time to stop for a day and rest."

"I'm sorry," I told them.

"Don't be sorry," Fili said, wrapping me underneath his arms. "We're all just glad that you're alright."

"Thank you," I said.

"Come along! We're leaving," Thorin told us.

As we walked off, Fili handed me over to Kili, who kept me locked underneath his arms. "Thank you for being my knight in shining armor," I teased.

He smiled down at me. "I'd ask you what you were talking about but I know my answer already. It's a saying from Rohan," he responded.

They hadn't even heard that one? "See? We do know each other better than we'd like to admit," I told him.

"Oh, I'm perfectly happy to admit how well I know you," Kili said playfully.

My face burned with a soft blush. We didn't need to talk about that right now. We would eventually need to talk about it, but it definitely wouldn't be a conversation to be had in front of everyone else. The dwarves kept me in the middle of the pack as we continued our hike up the mountainous paths. It took us about an hour to reach another suitable cave. I was extremely grateful - seeing as I was exhausted - as Kili walked me into the cave and allowed me to collapse to the ground. The others stayed at my side as Bombur heated up soup and tea followed by a wonderfully fatty meal.

For most of the day, I stayed with the others. No one wanted to leave me alone in the event that my internal systems shut down from the cold weather I'd tolerated all night. They spent most of the day tending to the fire and drying my clothes. By midday, I was finally completely dry again. Bombur spent a lot of the day making me warm liquids to keep me warmed up. I chatted contently with the dwarves for the majority of the day as I heard Kili recount the story of our night together.

Obviously, many of the details were changed during his telling of the story. Which was good, because I didn't imagine Thorin would have appreciated the entire story. Or any of them, for that matter. Perhaps I would tell them one day when they were really drunk and wouldn't remember it later. During Kili's recount of the story, he didn't mention the discussions of our relationship and the many kisses that were exchanged between us. I noticed a few furtive gazes being passed around as he talked. Did they somehow know what had happened?

Much to my pleasure, no one said anything about it. But I was sure that the conversations about our relationship would resume shortly. Much of that would likely be caused by Kili's refusal to leave my side during the day. Even when he moved away, he remained close. He was clearly quite concerned for my well-being. I also noticed that Thorin looked less-than-thrilled to see that our prior relationship was starting to rear its head again, despite his request that it not. Should have seen us last night, Thorin.

After dinner, that night, all of the dwarves retreated to their own corners of the large cave we had hidden out in. Having finally warmed up from our ordeal the night before, I set up my bedroll in the far corner of the cave, away from everyone else. I didn't want the stares that I had been receiving all day. Kili didn't look particularly thrilled that I had set up so far away and neither was I, honestly. But I knew that the others were suspicious. We would have to lay low for a few days. I was dumping the remnants of my washing water in the corner of the cave when I overheard voices.

"What happened out there?" Thorin's voice asked sharply.

Placing the bucket down gently, I slipped around the corner to see Kili and Thorin standing close together. "What do you mean? I told everyone what happened. She had to remove the wet clothes or she would have frozen," Kili told his uncle. "We wanted to -"

"That's not what I meant. I know what you two told the company. I'd like to know what really happened," Thorin said sternly.

"Nothing happened, Uncle. We just had to work together to keep warm," Kili said determinedly.

"Is that why the two of you are now speaking like you used to?" Thorin asked him.

"We had the night to talk things out," Kili explained.

"It's more than that. I know it," Thorin said.

My hands began sweating slightly. I knew that I should have walked away and let the two of them talk it out between themselves. I wasn't supposed to be involved in this one. This was between the two of them. But I couldn't bring myself to walk away. I had to hear what was happening. So, I stood and listened to them in fear. In the back of my mind, I had known that this would happen. The two of them would end up like this again - in a nasty argument - the moment that Thorin found out what had happened.

"Yes. Something happened," Kili admitted.

Oh, no... "Did Miss Ambrose -"

"It wasn't her," Kili interrupted his uncle. I scowled. I wasn't that bad of an influence on people! "She didn't want to address it. I forced the issue. She was trying to listen to your order. Thorin… I can't just continue to pretend that we're nothing more than friends."

My heart began racing slightly. "Absolutely not," Thorin hissed.

"I love her, Uncle," Kili said.

Thorin stared at his nephew disbelievingly. "Is it love or infatuation?"

"It's love and I love her."

My stomach churned in knots. I should have been happy about this... But I was terrified. "Did I not make this clear before? This is not up for discussion," Thorin demanded.

"It is!" Kili yelled, his voice echoing off the cave walls.

"It is not! I gave you an order!" Thorin thundered. He calmed down just slightly. "Not a suggestion, Kili. You are to follow it."

Just like that, my entire hope from the other night came crashing down around me. My heart felt like it had fallen into my stomach. We couldn't be together. It was exactly like I had thought that it would be. The two of them would never see eye-to-eye on this. Thorin thought that I wasn't worthy but Kili wasn't willing to give me up. But that couldn't be what we were. This was all just for one night. It was stupid for either one of us to get our hopes up. We weren't destined to be together. Not now and not ever.

The two of them continued arguing back and forth among themselves. Neither one of them looked willing to budge on their stances. Some part of me wanted to overhear what they were talking about but I walked away, unwilling to hear how I knew this conversation would end up. Because I knew that things between them needed to change between the two of them. There was never any tension between Kili and Thorin before I came along. I couldn't be the reason that they fought like this. I wouldn't be.

That wasn't an ending I could face. I couldn't let their relationship fall apart because of me. I sat in silence on my bedroll for a long time staring at the stone cave walls. What was I supposed to say right now? A few of the dwarves came to talk to me but I politely brushed them off, telling them that I needed some time to rest after the previous night. They all looked very surprised at my change in demeanor. As I knew would happen, much to my dismay, I eventually heard his footfalls behind me.

"This is a lonely spot to put your bedroll," Kili said.

His voice had a gentle lilt to it. My stomach churned slightly. I knew what needed to happen right now. Perhaps I had always known what I needed to do. We weren't destined to be together. We never would be. As much as I loved him, and I finally had realized that I loved him, I knew that any attempt at a relationship on our part would be useless. It would end up being the worst thing for everyone involved. The best thing that I could do for either one of us was to drive him away. It was the only way he would give me up.

"Wanted to be away from everyone," I finally answered.

"Including me?" Kili asked curiously.

"Yeah," I whispered.

"Have I done something wrong?" Kili asked worriedly.

"Go away. Please," I begged quietly.

"Is this about last night?" Kili asked. I remained silent. "Leah, if I did something to hurt you, please just tell me."

Finally, I turned back to him. He looked extremely concerned. Get it over with, Leah... "You need to walk away from me. I am not worth you losing your family. They are so much more important than I am," I said sternly.

Kili's smile faded. "Leah -"

"If you won't walk away, I will. Leave me alone. Find someone else. I don't want you," I said, my voice cracking at the end of my statement.

"Leah -"

"Go!" I shouted. This wasn't an easy thing to do, but it needed to be done. "Go with your friends. I'm only here to help you reclaim Erebor. I'm leaving after that. There's nothing for you with me."

It was almost impossible to keep any emotion out of my voice. But I had to be strong on this. If it seemed like I wasn't serious about it, Kili would know and he wouldn't give up. He stared at me blankly for a long time. I refused to look at him and meet his eyes. I knew I would lose it if I did. After a few seconds, he moved toward me but I quickly pulled away from his touch. The look on his face was nothing short of heartbroken. But, like a true royal, he knew how to mask his emotions. An even stare fell over his face as he nodded at me.

"As you wish," he said tonelessly.

Maybe he was trying to avoid the emotions just like I was. After all, what I had said was horrible. Especially after last night. As Kili turned to walk away, I finally collapsed onto my bedroll, crying as quietly as I possibly could. I didn't want the others to hear me. I couldn't believe that I had just done what I had. But I knew that it was the right thing to do. He would move on from me. He would be fine. As for me, I would finish my mission in Middle Earth and then return home to my real world, knowing that I would never quite be the same.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

The next few days boasted no lack of awkwardness. In fact, the days after getting trapped in the cave were absolutely miserable on me. Even more than I had initially anticipated them to be. Mostly because now there wasn't even the slightest hope that I might have been able to have a friendship with Kili. I had successfully managed to kill that possibility. The moment that I had said that horrible comment about not wanting him and returning to my home after saving Erebor was the moment that I had destroyed any chance that we could have ever been together.

Kili hadn't so much as even spared a glance in my direction since I had told him that I didn't want him. Every time I looked at him, those deep brown eyes would busy themselves somewhere else. I knew that what I had said to him wasn't right. It was a nasty thing of me to do so soon after telling him that I did care for him. But I had to try and salvage his relationship with Thorin and I knew that he wouldn't drop his relationship with me unless I forced it. The main problem was now that he clearly thought that I had been stringing him along this entire time.

In fact, that was the furthest from the truth. My mind almost constantly returned to that night in the cave. I thought about our kisses all the time. I tried to imagine that we were still lost in that cave. Now that we were apart, I had finally realized that I really did love him. I loved him then and I loved him now. I just wished that I hadn't been stupid enough to end it the way that I had. It was cruel and not thought through in the slightest. But I had always known that it was the only way to genuinely drive him off. I had to truly break his heart.

The first day following our brief argument, I had spent most of the day at the back of the pack. I had spent the entire day there, not daring to look at any of the rest of the company. Kili hadn't dared look back at me but I had looked at him. In fact, I'd spent most of the day with my eyes locked on the back of his head. It had been almost impossible to keep me from crying whenever I saw him. I was extremely grateful that the others had just thought that I was recovering from my ordeal a few nights prior. It had then become my mission to get my act together over the next few days.

It certainly wasn't an easy task. It was almost impossible to keep myself from venting to someone. I needed to talk to someone about it. But I wasn't comfortable talking about it with the company. Although they had definitely noticed the new shift in our relationship. From best friends to almost lovers to an awkward friendship to another brief almost lovers to complete avoidance of each other. It was very easy to see that something extreme had happened between us in the cave and then afterward. Thankfully no one had asked either one of us about it.

In a way, I supposed that I was extremely grateful that no one had mentioned it. I didn't know what I would have said if someone had asked me about it. I probably would have ended up just muttering stupidly. At the moment all I hoped was that Thorin could see just how upset we both were about what had happened. I hoped that he knew just how upset I was over this - as was his nephew. Particularly because this didn't seem to be a brief problem. This was likely something that would follow us for the rest of the journey.

It was early on in the evening at the moment. We were hiding out for the night in a cave very similar to the one I had gotten trapped in with Kili a few nights ago. Watch shifts were being assigned right now. I wanted to take one - as I really couldn't sleep anyway - but the company never wanted to give me one. Probably because they didn't think that I was capable. So, I planted myself in the dirt, sitting in silence. I remained as still as a statue until I heard boots scuffling near me. I glanced up to see Bofur coming to sit with me.

"Good evening, lassie," Bofur greeted.

"Hi, Bofur," I said.

Bofur smiled, placing a hand on my knee. "You look far too sad for such a pretty girl," he said sweetly.

"Thanks," I said, trying to push a smile onto my face.

"Would you like to tell me what's wrong?" Bofur offered.

Bofur was the first person to blatantly ask me what was wrong with me. I had wanted to talk about it before but suddenly I was nervous to admit what had happened. So, I remained silent for a long time. It took me a while to decide that I didn't want to tell him. Too many people already knew the general situation. But it might have helped to have another point of view. I had only talked to Bilbo and Fili, who were both obviously on my side. I knew that Balin had promised that he was impartial, but I knew that he was really on Thorin's side. It might help to have someone completely impartial.

"It... might seem a little silly," I said honestly.

Bofur merely smiled. "Matters of the heart usually are."

"Picked up on it that much, huh?" I asked.

We both laughed. It had been extremely obvious to everyone that there was something wrong with my relationship with Kili. "Would you like to hear a story?" Bofur offered.

Maybe a story would get my mind off of things. "Yeah, sure."

"When I was younger, living in the Blue Mountains, there was a woman I used to see. In the morning I would see her on her way to the market. In the afternoons, I would see her on her daily walks. I never learned her name. I never spoke to her. But I would watch her. I didn't know her name but it made no difference. I used to imagine our conversations in my head. Meeting each other. Learning more and more about each other. Becoming friends. Perhaps eventually falling in love," Bofur said.

Had Bofur ever gotten married to someone? I searched the far reaches of my mind but couldn't remember. All I knew was that he was toy-maker. I hadn't thought that he was married. In fact, the only one I'd thought was married was Gloin and that was only because I knew that he would eventually have Gimli. It would have been nice if Bofur actually had gotten married - or if he would eventually get married. He was a sweet guy. He deserved someone to be happy with. One of us did, at least. So, I smiled at him.

"But I was just a lowly miner and toy-maker. No respectable woman would have wanted to give me the light of day," Bofur continued. I swallowed thickly. "So, I settled on watching her. I don't think we ever even met eyes. Days passed. Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. Eventually, a full year had passed. That was when I promised myself that I would speak to her. I would just take my chance. But I couldn't think of something to say. She was always surrounded by her friends or reading. Nearly two years had passed by the time I finally gathered the courage to talk to her."

At least Bofur was braver than I was. I couldn't even speak to Kili right now. I didn't think I would ever be able to speak to him again at this point. Who knew? Maybe after two years, I would be able to speak to him. Of course, at that point, he would be in love with Tauriel. Naturally, that would only be if I was able to save Kili during the Battle of the Five Armies. My head started throbbing at the thought of what was to come. I looked back up at Bofur and smiled again. His face was an unreadable mask.

"What happened?" I asked curiously.

"She told me a lovely story of her wedding that had occurred mere days earlier," Bofur said, no bitterness in his voice.

My grin dropped stupidly. A story that I had thought would be sweet turned out to be even worse than my situation with Kili. "Oh... Bofur..." I said dumbly, staring at him. What was a suitable answer to that? "I'm sorry."

Not that, you moron. "It turned out that she had met her husband just over a year beforehand," Bofur said.

"I - I'm very sorry that happened but I think I'm missing the point," I said.

The moment I'd said it, I swallowed nervously. That wasn't exactly the nicest thing I could have said to him. "My point is that when you wait too long, someone or something else can come along," Bofur told me pointedly. I nodded blankly at him. "If I had said something earlier, things could have been different. But I waited because I was afraid."

If there was ever an appropriate story to tell me, this was it. I thought about Bofur's story for a long time. I realized that he was right. Although there was a good chance that Bofur didn't even realize what he was telling me. He didn't understand that Tauriel would come into Kili's life in a matter of months and he would very likely fall in love with her if I wasn't there. If I wanted to get a real chance with him, I would just have to get over myself and go for it. But I had already made it painfully obvious to him that we weren't supposed to be together - and that I didn't want to be with him.

There was a good chance that I had already ruined things between us. I didn't know if I could take back what I had said to him. "What if it's already too late?" I asked Bofur pathetically.

"It's only too late when you say it is," Bofur replied.

We stayed in silence for a few minutes before I said, "Thorin is going to be furious with you for telling me this."

Even though he hadn't blatantly said it, I was sure that Thorin was silently demanding the company to take his side in this fight. "For telling you what?" Bofur asked. I arched a brow. Did he not understand? His lips turned up in a playful smile. "I was just sharing a story of my silly youth with you."

Right... I smiled at him. "It's a good story," I said. Bofur gave me another grin as he rose to his feet to walk away. "Bofur." He stopped and turned back to me. "Why tell me that?"

Bofur gave me a slight smile. "Because you make him happy."

"Not right now," I muttered.

Right now, I had a feeling that me walking off the edge of the cliff would make Kili happy. "No," Bofur agreed. "But he was certainly happy the other night."

Before I said something stupid and ruined everything... "Thank you," I told Bofur.

"You're welcome, lassie," Bofur said.

He briefly laid a hand on my shoulder before rising again and walking off. I did appreciate the story that he had told me but it didn't change the fact that I felt terrible about what I had done. Not to mention how much I genuinely missed having Kili in my life. I went back to my spot on the rocks, stewing in my own misery for a little while, refusing to join in on the songs and stories being told on the other side of camp. My mind was firmly locked on the situation with Kili. I didn't know how to broach the subject with him. He was definitely quite angry with me - understandably.

A long time passed that I merely sat and stared off into the distance. The others all seemed to be enjoying themselves well enough, save one person. Kili was about as quiet as I was, only engaging in conversations when prodded by the others. Eventually, I couldn't listen to his forced conversations anymore. I gathered my bow and arrows and headed out of the cave, letting Dwalin know that I would be back shortly. I was only a few yards from our cave this time. There was no way that I was getting caught in a storm this time. I was in plain sight of the others.

Unfortunately, my aim wasn't nearly up to par with where it normally was. I assumed that it was because I was upset and distracted. I'd thought that shooting would take my mind off of things, but I seemed to only be upsetting myself over my current lack of skills. I was firing at a tree just a few yards from where I was positioned. I was aiming for a knot in the center of the tree, but not a single arrow had found its mark. The closest was still about five inches from where I was aiming. I fired my tenth arrow, aiming into the center of the knot, frowning as it lodged even higher into the tree than my previous attempt.

"Damn..." I muttered, reaching back for another arrow.

"You're firing too high."

My hand tensed around the shaft of the arrow as I turned back. Much to my surprise, Kili was standing there. Had he been watching me the entire time? I hoped not. I didn't need him laughing at my sudden decrease in skill. I nocked the arrow, well aware that Kili was watching me. My arrow, more appropriately. He hadn't even bothered to meet my eyes. I aimed slightly lower this time and released. The arrow sailed into the tree, just about two inches above where I had wanted it. Much better than any of my previous attempts. I turned back to Kili and smiled awkwardly. 

He still wasn't meeting my eyes. "Thanks," I said.

He merely nodded, his gaze fixed on the tree. I turned back to it. I'd expected him to leave, but instead, he said, "We both know you can hit much lower."

Had he meant that? I whipped around back to him, hurt way more than I would have liked to admit by his comment. Kili looked surprised that he had said that to me. Maybe he was angrier about this entire thing than I had thought that he was. After all, he had said it himself. What he had done in the cave wasn't on a whim. He couldn't just take the hit like a guy from the old world could. This genuinely had hurt him. Maybe this was my payback. For the first time since that night, I met eyes with him. I couldn't read the many emotions in his eyes.

Say something, you fool! "Kili..." I mumbled.

A little more than that, Leah... But I didn't know where to go from there. How much good would saying 'I'm sorry' do at this point? Kili let out a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," he said.

"Thanks for the advice," I said emotionlessly.

This entire thing was my fault, but that didn't mean that I was just going to get over him saying things like that to me. Kili looked like he might have wanted to say something else, but I whirled around on my heels, snatched my arrows out of the tree I had been using, and stormed off. He was still standing rooted in his place. I didn't really want to hear any of the rest of the likely very tense conversation that Kili would be thinking of having with me - hashing out what had happened that night. No, if I had wanted someone to insult me, I would have just gone to Thorin.

Kili's P.O.V.

There was no doubt in Kili's mind that he'd done a lot of stupid things before. Waltzing right into a fight that he was clearly underprepared for, fighting someone about three times his size, and getting into it with a woman who was just as brash and bold as Thorin was. Perhaps it was that reason that he had just said what he had to her. All he knew was that he so desperately wanted to take it back. Now wasn't the time to be insulting each other. All he wanted from her was a straight answer, and instead, he had just driven her even further away from him.

To say that he was absolutely devastated at the change of pace in their relationship would have been an understatement. He didn't even know an appropriate word for how he was feeling. He didn't know what it was that he was feeling. But he knew that, for just a brief moment, he had thought that the two of them would be together. He had never been happier as when he had finally kissed her. He had shared brief pecks on the cheeks or an occasional kiss with a few dwarven women back in the Blue Mountains, but what had happened between them was something else.

It was something that the elders - and almost everyone on the journey - would have said was completely inappropriate. But Kili had long-since realized that Leah was not a normal woman. She was more open than any other he'd met. Some part of him liked that. She said what was on her mind and did what she wanted. That night had been proof. There they had laid, almost unclothed, kissing each other like they would have lost each other forever if they'd broken apart - as it seemed that they had. That kiss that they had shared was... there was no word good enough to describe it.

Kili would have never been able to describe it to someone else. He wouldn't have felt comfortable telling someone else what had happened. The way that he had looked at her wasn't the way that he had ever expected to look at anyone. His thoughts had certainly not been anything that he was expecting. But something had changed in him after he had met her. Something that he knew he would never be able to get out of his head. She had changed him. He had thought that he could explore his new mindset with her.

But something had drastically shifted in their relationship. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened. All he knew for sure was that Leah had changed her entire perspective on their relationship. For some reason, she was now insisting that Kili - and the kiss - meant nothing to her and that she was planning on leaving Erebor the moment that the journey was over. He couldn't understand for the life of him what had happened. He thought that they were on the same page. What had happened for her to make such a drastic change?

His mind seemed to constantly be racing with ideas or thoughts on what might have changed her mind. One of the first things he had thought was that perhaps it was part of her personality from having been raised in Rohan. She had mentioned that people did things just because they were bored. She had also mentioned that she had never really been in love. So, was she refusing to get close to him? Or, was there a chance that the kiss really didn't mean as much to her as it did to him? He didn't know. But he did know that he was in love with her. He'd just thought that she was in love with him too.

Leah had gone storming off after Kili had given her his rather uncalled for comment. He didn't blame her. He would have done the same thing if it were him. He wanted to go tell her that he hadn't meant it but he knew that she didn't want to see him right now. Who could have blamed her? Since he couldn't talk to the person he genuinely wanted to talk to, he went to the person he had always gone to. Fili was sitting off on a small boulder, sharpening one of his endless knives. He didn't even glance up from his work as Kili walked closer.

"Fili," Kili said.

"Yes?" Fili asked, finally looking up from his knife.

"I need to talk to you," Kili said urgently.

He didn't want to put off this conversation any longer. Fili definitely looked interested now. "What is it?"

"What do you think it is?" Kili asked numbly.

"Leah," Fili answered instantaneously.

"Leah," Kili confirmed.

What else would it have ever been? "You two seemed to be getting on rather well the other day," Fili commented carefully.

"Astounding how fast things can change," Kili snorted.

"What happened?" Fili asked. Suddenly Kili fell silent. He didn't know how Fili would react to news of that night. Fili sensed his brother's hesitance. "I'm your brother, Kili. Whatever happened between the two of you, I'll never judge either one of you for it."

He was right about that much. Kili knew that Fili would never judge him for anything he did. So, he took a deep breath and delved into the entire story from that night. Everything from their training and getting stuck in the cave to the conversations they had shared and his less-than-innocent thoughts about being alone with her. When it came time to tell Fili about the many kisses that they had shared and the promise that Kili would come back to her, Fili had grinned like a madman. He had always been rooting for them.

But the moment he had told his brother about her sudden change of heart, his smile had dropped. He waited in silence for a long time as Fili processed the news. He wanted an answer but he knew that this wasn't easy. Kili ran a hand through his dark hair and looked up to Leah. She was writing in her journal, her brows furrowed in either annoyance or concentration. Maybe both. He looked back at his brother, whose lips were slowly spreading back into a smile.

"I know that things don't seem good right now, but you've made serious progress with Leah," Fili said. At least someone was looking on the bright side of things. "You two finally kissed. That's not something that will be so easily forgotten by either one of you."

But it seemed to have been easily forgotten by Leah. He just didn't understand what had happened. She had been so hesitant to do anything in the cave and then, suddenly, she had decided that she wanted to kiss him. She had seemed thrilled that he was willing to fight Thorin to be with her. But then came the next night. All of a sudden, Leah had changed her entire stance on being with him. He hadn't forgotten the kiss... It didn't seem that she had either...

"No," Kili finally agreed. "Every time I see her now I just remember that night. I want to kiss her again. But she so much as told me that it meant nothing to her."

Fili rolled his eyes. "Are you so daft?"

"What?" Kili asked, surprised.

He didn't understand what he was missing. "She's still thinking about Thorin's order that the two of you stay apart. I heard that argument between the two of you the other night. It got pretty heated. I wonder if she heard it, too?" Fili asked. Kili froze. "Wouldn't that be around the time that she suddenly changed her mind about being with you?"

Kili thought on his brother's words for a long time. He wasn't wrong. Leah had explicitly told him about her concerns over Thorin's order in the cave. But he had ignored her concerns at the time. He had forgotten about them. The night of his rather nasty argument with Thorin over what had happened in the cave, he had thought that they were far enough away from everyone to keep it between themselves. But Leah had been at the back of the cave. She had set up her bedroll far away from the others and... hadn't she vanished not long before the argument? She definitely could have heard.

Kili had been so preoccupied in his fight with Thorin that he hadn't even bothered to think about whether or not anyone had heard them. Apparently, they had. If Fili had heard, there was a good chance that Leah might have heard. Maybe Fili was right. Kili's chest soared with hope. She might not have meant anything she had said to him. But now came the question of how to get her to admit that. If she was still trying to protect his relationship with his uncle, how was he going to get her to open up to theirs?

Fili seemed to know that his brother wouldn't speak first, so he said, "You said you loved her."

"I do," Kili admitted.

She was the first woman he'd ever loved and would very likely be the last. Fili's lips tilted up in another smile. "That's good to hear," he said.

Kili shook his head. "Whoever said that love is a wondrous feeling must not have ever met -"

"Thorin," Fili interrupted immediately. Kili's head snapped over to look at him. "Not Leah. Thorin. Perhaps you should go talk to her rather than throw little jibes at her."

"I haven't -"

"Yes, you have. I've seen it and so has everyone else. Leah has most certainly seen it."

Was Fili telling the truth? Unfortunately, Kili knew that his brother was right. He had said a few things that had been rather uncalled for. None of them - save the one he had just accidentally let slip - had been directed to her, but everyone had known who they were meant for. Some as simple as commenting the lack of commitment in mortal men to his amazement that they couldn't seem to genuinely commit to anything. He hadn't realized at the time, as he had been so hurt, but he was definitely hurting her. What was wrong with him?

Kili had never been the type to deliberately hurt someone. Of course, he had also never been in love. "You might not mean what you're saying - I doubt you realize what you've said - but she does. You're hurting her," Fili told him.

"I don't want to hurt her," Kili mumbled guiltily.

"Then perhaps you should apologize," Fili advised.

"What if she meant what she said in the cave?" Kili asked.

"Tell me something," Fili said. Kili nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think she meant what she said?"

Kili was silent for a long time. He had never wanted it to be true. He had always prayed that she hadn't meant what she'd said. "For a while, I did. But lately, I think she might not have. She just seems so sad. Back in the cave that night, when we were together, I don't think she could have done it without feeling something," Kili said honestly. That night had been so intense. He couldn't believe that she had done it without feeling something for him. "But does she feel as strongly about me as I do about her? If she doesn't, I don't want to let myself think we could be more."

If she didn't truly reciprocate the feelings, Kili wasn't sure that he could put himself out there. "There's only one person who can answer that," Fili answered quietly.

Kili knew that he was right. There was no use talking to any of the rest of the dwarves about what was going on. None of them would genuinely know what was going on in Leah's head. It was a frightening place to be, anyway. Kili slowly turned over toward where Leah was sitting. Fili followed his gaze. She was still sitting on the other side of the camp. Her head was tucked into her journal, which was laying open in her lap. No better time than the present... Kili was about to get to his feet to go talk to her when Bofur cut him off.

Bofur ran over to Leah and laid a hand on her shoulder. She jumped up slightly. "Sing something, lassie!" Bofur told her.

Leah began shaking her head nervously. "I'm - I'm sorry, Bofur," she said awkwardly, shaking her head. "I'm not really in the mood."

"Nothing like a song to put you in the mood," Bofur replied, grinning.

"Come on, Leah!" Nori goaded.

"We all love hearing you sing," Ori added, smiling at her.

Leah stared at them for a moment, looking quite hesitant. But she finally nodded her consent. "What do you want to hear?" Leah asked.

The company began muttering among themselves for which song they wanted to hear. Leah was listening awkwardly. Bifur sudden;y shouted loudly in Khuzdul. The others began nodding their consent. Leah looked to the others in confusion. She avoided Kili's gaze. He was grateful at the moment for it. He knew what Bifur had just said and he knew that Leah wouldn't want to do that. Kili swallowed as he exchanged a glance with Fili, who was grinning at the change of pace.

"He says he wants to hear a love song," Bombur told her.

It was Leah's turn to look awkward. "A love song?" she asked.

"Just one, lassie," Bofur told her sweetly.

Leah breathed out quietly. "All right."

Kili knew how awkward she must have felt. He knew that the last thing she wanted right now was to sing a love song when she was feeling the way that she was. The others were oblivious as they stood in silence for a long time, watching her. She shifted awkwardly on her spot. Could she even manage a love song after what had been happening in her own love life? But she seemed to be deciding to go for it, still seated on her side of the cave. Her gaze remained locked on the rocks at her feet. Leah began snapping her fingers to a surprisingly upbeat tune.

"We've been to both Carolina's  
Seen a big Montana sky  
Ridden up and down the coast a few times  
London, Paris, paradise  
But ain't got much memory of the scenes come to think  
I miss them all  
And damn, babe, it's all your fault

"No matter where we go  
No matter what we do  
If you're there boy, I've got my eyes on you  
Don't matter where we've been  
No, there ain't no better view  
Than you in my arms with my eyes on you  
With my eyes on you  
With my eyes on you."

Her voice was light and lilting as she sang. Kili smiled at her as the others grabbed her arms and pulled her off of the ground. She laughed through her song as she got up to dance with them. The tune was so chipper that the dancing worked perfectly with it. He assumed that the others must have noticed her change in demeanor. Obviously, they wanted her to be happy. Kili remained in the far corner of the cave, standing and watching with Fili. Leah began laughing softly as she danced about the cave, continuing to sing.

"Speaking of the coast, remember Pfeiffer beach?  
You and me, that sunset, cliffs by the sea  
And the night rolled in  
And you still talk about that moon that I can't recall  
But God I saw all I needed to  
Might as well have stayed in the room

"No matter where we go  
No matter what we do  
If you're there boy, I've got my eyes on you  
Don't matter where we've been  
No there ain't no better view  
Than you in my arms with my eyes on you  
With my eyes on you  
With my eyes on you

"Don't you remember Times Square?  
And people counting down everywhere  
Two-thousand-whatever, no I didn't care  
Cause baby you were there  
And once again  
Couldn't help but stare

"No matter where we go  
No matter what we do  
If you're there boy, I've got my eyes on you  
Don't matter where we've been  
No there ain't no better view  
Than you in my arms with my eyes on you

"Halfway around the world  
Or the local corner booth  
Yeah you guessed it boy  
You know I got my eyes on you  
We could be on any street  
Any party, any room  
I'll be there all night with my eyes on you."

At this point, Leah was laughing madly as the other members of the company slowly spun her around and around the cave. Save Thorin - who was sitting out the festivities. Kili smiled at the sight of her. He wanted her to be happy. Right now, she looked happy. Out of the corner of his eyes, Kili just barely caught Fili motioning Bofur to come toward him. Kili was somehow still extremely surprised when Bofur spun Leah right into his arms. He caught her but, unlike the others, didn't release her. Instead, the two of them locked eyes as she continued to sing quietly.

"Don't matter where we've been  
No there ain't no better view  
Than you in my arms with my eyes on... you."

Her voice was almost completely gone by the time the song ended. Kili's arms remained encircling her. Her voice was so strained that Kili feared she might have passed out. The others began clapping for her. Leah gently stepped out of Kili's arms, finally breaking eye contact with him. He already missed her touch. He wanted her back. But she instead turned to the others and smiled awkwardly as Bofur grabbed her arms and pulled her back to himself. Fili was smiling in the background as he walked back up to his brother.

"You think that's a woman who feels nothing for you?" Fili asked, laying a hand on his brother's shoulder. Kili looked back at him. "Trust me, Kili, she hates this just as much as you do."

Kili groaned, throwing his head back. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"The way to finding love isn't always easy. But I've got a feeling that once you make it to the end of that path, it might just end up being worth it," Fili told his little brother, laying a hand on his arm.

"If they can find the end of the path," Kili said.

"They can. If they're willing to look for it," Fili said pointedly.

He patted Kili on the shoulder again before rising to his feet and heading off toward the back of the cave. Kili didn't bother moving. The others were all laughing and humming and piping away as bedtime neared, but Kili couldn't bring himself to get involved in the festivities. Instead, he turned back to where Leah was sitting. The smile had long since faded from her lips. She was seated on her rock again, looking like she was trying her best to keep from crying. He had to talk to her. Kili was willing to find a way to make it work with her. He just had to bide his time.

Leah's P.O.V.

To say that I was still annoyed at Kili's statement earlier was an understatement. I was still extremely hurt. I wasn't foolish enough to think that he had said it on purpose, but that didn't change things. I had hoped that he would at least be slightly understanding of what had happened. But that was a stupid thought. I knew that he was upset at me. I should have known that I would likely end up being victims to a few jabs being thrown my way. I supposed that they hurt so much because they were coming from someone I cared so deeply for.

It didn't help that we seemed to somehow still be getting put together. I was no fool. I knew that Fili and Bofur had worked together to ensure that I would end up in his arms by the end of my song earlier. I knew that Bifur had requested a romantic song because he was hoping that Kili would be listening. I hated to admit that I was just the slightest bit happy that they had. Just to be near him again was relieving. To see that look in his eyes that told me that - as much as he might have wanted to - he didn't hate me. He, just like me, wanted this to work out. 

As the hours passed, I found myself edging closer and closer to the far reaches of the campsite. Anything to keep away from the others. I wasn't exactly in the mood for another song and dance routine. Of course, without the others anywhere near me, I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be doing. Dinner had already passed, although I hadn't eaten. It was too dark to make another attempt at shooting or practicing. I wasn't in a social mood either - I didn't want to join in on the songs or stories. So, I sat back in the sand, turning Kili's rune stone over in my hands.

The scuffle of boots brought me out of my reverie. My heart skipped a beat for a moment before I realized that it was Fili. "Brought you dinner," he said, taking a seat next to me and handing over a bowl of soup.

"Thanks," I said quietly.

Fili didn't bother beating around the bush. "Want to tell me what happened that night the two of you spent in the cave?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"Exactly what he told you happened," I answered.

Fili nodded disbelievingly. "Right," he said slowly. I wanted him to drop the subject, but I knew that he wouldn't. I'd seen him speaking to Kili earlier. I should have known that this was coming. "Then why is it that the two of you speak even less now than you did in Rivendell?"

Because I broke his heart. "We came to a mutual agreement," I said.

"Is that so?" Fili asked suspiciously.

"Yeah."

Fili seemed to finally realize that he wasn't getting anything out of me this way. So, he changed tactics. "Leah… We are friends, aren't we?"

"I think so," I answered.

"Then as a friend, let me tell you this. Kili is heartbroken," Fili said.

"Talk to your uncle about it," I said coldly.

I would have been more than happy to be with Kili. Thorin was the one who had destroyed that opportunity. "I did," Fili said. My head snapped up to his. Since when had the two of them spoken? "Thorin won't see to reason. But I don't think the cause for the newest change in Kili's personality is because of Thorin."

How in the world was this my fault? Actually, I knew exactly how it was my fault, but it also wasn't fair to place all of the blame on me. I hadn't done anything. I'd wanted to be with Kili but I was afraid of devastating his relationship with Thorin. So, I had said something rather uncalled for. Yes, I supposed that his latest change in personality was my fault. I shouldn't have said what I had. But Thorin shouldn't have gotten involved. I looked back at Fili, noticing that he looked quite confused.

"What did he tell you?" I asked, sighing.

"He told me what happened," Fili admitted.

"All of it?" I asked curiously.

They might have been brothers, but was Kili really willing to tell Fili about those kisses "Yes," Fili said hesitantly.

All I could hope was that Kili hadn't gone that into detail about what had happened. I didn't need that conversation. "Why come ask me about it if you already knew the truth, then?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to get your point of view on the entire thing," Fili said.

I hummed at him. "You want to know if I meant what I told him."

"I do," Fili agreed, not bothering to hide the truth.

"No," I answered immediately.

It was Fili's turn to hum. "That's what I thought."

At least someone didn't automatically think the worst of me. Fili nodded before rising to his feet. I followed him, jumping to wrap my hand around his arm. "Wait!" I hissed, yanking him back to me. Fili turned around in confusion. "Please, Fili, you have to swear to me right now that you will not tell Kili that I didn't mean what I said to him." He stared at me blankly. "I'm begging you."

If things were a little less serious, I would have burst out laughing. He looked like I had just asked him to jump off the edge of the mountain. I knew that he didn't understand what I meant. I knew that it seemed strange that I would have lied to Kili about my feelings for him. But I had a perfectly good reason. I just hoped that Fili could understand. I didn't want him to go to his brother and admit that it had all been a lie. That would have just put us back to the original problem. It was better, albeit harder, to have things work out this way.

"Perhaps I've never been completely clear on the entire romance situation, having never been that deep in one myself," Fili started slowly. I couldn't help it. I smiled at him. "But... I don't understand why you would deliberately say something to hurt Kili when you didn't mean it. Now you don't want me to tell him that you didn't mean it. Why?"

"If Kili thinks that I care for him still, he won't give up on us," I answered as simply as possible.

Fili stared at me. "I think I miss the point of how that's a bad thing."

"It's straining his relationship with Thorin," I told him desperately. Fili's face fell slightly as he finally realized what I was so concerned about. "You've seen it, Fili. I know you have."

Fili was silent for a while. "Yes... I think I understand."

"Promise me that you won't tell him," I said.

"Leah -"

"Promise me!"

"Thorin will never abandon Kili," Fili reasoned.

And I believed that. But I didn't believe that their relationship would still be the same. "But we both know just how much things will change if I give it a real try with Kili. I can't - I can't do that to him," I stammered. Fili looked unhappy with my explanation. "I'm just some girl he met a few months ago. But that's his uncle. He was almost like your father growing up. He's been in his life since the very beginning. I'm new to his life. I can't be the one who smashes in and destroys everything."

"You are not just some girl who waltzed into his life," Fili said. His voice sounded strained. "Leah, I believe that you're the love of his life."

No... That wasn't me. It had to have been someone else. It could have been Tauriel. Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe it genuinely was someone else. Maybe it was someone in the Blue Mountains. Maybe he would meet her after they saved Erebor. After all, I was still determined to save him in the Battle of Five Armies. I would save him and then... and then what? Go home? Stay here and live all by my lonesome? I pressed my fingers up against my temple. I hadn't even been this confused when studying Huygens's Principle in Calculus-Based Physics II.

It was a long time before I looked back at Fili. "Could I also be the one who ruins it?" I asked him.

He would never understand that it wasn't just Kili's romantic life I could have ruined. If I wasn't careful, I would also help end it. Fili let out a deep breath. "No matter what you do, I don't think he'll ever believe that you ruined his life," he said.

"But I can't be with him. Not without risking his relationship with Thorin," I reasoned.

"What of your relationship with him?" Fili asked.

What of my fucking sanity? "I - I don't..." I mumbled.

It felt like I was drunk again - a feeling I hadn't had since the accidental night that had sent my old life up in flames. I didn't know how I felt about this entire thing. Upset, obviously. But it was something more. My head was in about a thousand different places and I couldn't focus on a single one. What was the real problem right now? Wanting to be with Kili, my fear of Tauriel eventually entering the picture, or keeping the entire line of Durin alive during the Battle of Five Armies? Suddenly, I wished that I was puking in the back alley of that dive bar again.

At least I would have been able to wake up the next morning (albeit with a nasty hangover) and get over it. I had been here long enough to know that this wasn't real. I wasn't getting out of this by going to sleep. I had to handle this. But I didn't know how I was supposed to just get over it with Kili. I didn't know if I was willing to risk Kili's relationship with Thorin. Fili must have understood my point of view on that one. He looked over at me and rested a hand on my knee, still saying nothing. He knew that I needed time to think about this. Not that my thoughts had been helpful so far.

"I miss him," I moaned, gently resting my head on his shoulder.

His hand came up to brush back my hair. "He misses you too," Fili said.

"Does he hate me for what I said?" I asked.

Fili shook his head. I let out a breath of relief. "I think he's more confused than anything else. He just wants to know what's changed." Well, I would have liked Thorin to fall off a cliff. We didn't always get what we wanted. "Would you like to know what I think?" Fili asked.

"Not really," I answered.

Fili smiled and answered anyway. "I think you two are going to wind up together."

"Why?"

"Because you both belong together."

His voice had confidence that could have only come from being raised to be a king. I smiled at him bitterly. I might have wanted the two of us to be together, but I knew that this wouldn't work out for either one of us. Not without risking his relationship with Thorin. I knew that I couldn't destroy that. It had been there much longer than ours had. He was like Kili's father. Plus, the guilt would eat me alive if I put a strain on that one. Even if neither one of them ever said it outright, there would always be a tenseness between them.

Raising my head off Fili's shoulder, I dug through the pocket of my trousers and pulled out the runestone, which I found myself holding whenever I made myself upset about Kili. Fili's head tilted to the side. He looked quite surprised to see me holding it.

"Our mother gave that to Kili," Fili said quietly.

Was I going insane (probably) or did his voice have a slightly accusatory note to it? "I didn't take it. He - He gave it to me in the cave," I said quickly. Fili nodded as I reached out to him. "Here, you can take it back. I'm sorry."

Fili immediately shook his head, pushing the stone back to me. "No. It was his to give and take," Fili said. I nodded, placing the stone in my lap. "But he didn't give that to you without thinking it through."

"I - I know," I stuttered.

We sat in silence for a long time. Fili looked quite disappointed as he said, "You have my word that I will say nothing to Kili."

"Thank you," I said, swallowing thickly.

"But I do think that you should tell him," Fili added.

Tell him that I didn't mean it what I said to him? It might have made me feel better if he knew that I cared for him, but it would put us right back to square one. "I'll think about it," I said slowly.

The question was whether or not I would act on my desire to tell Kili the truth. I smiled at Fili as he gave my knee a squeeze, rose to his feet, and walked off. He headed back for Kili. I dropped back down against my bedroll. I hated the way this had turned. I missed just being able to talk to Kili. I missed being friends with him. I missed our easy banter rather than the jaded comments I was now getting. I definitely missed the kisses that we had shared. They were unforgettable. Right now, I wished that I had a girl to talk to - someone who would understand how I was feeling. I wished that Harley was here.

Why was I even here? I had about a thousand things to do and one of them was not going to the mall. If I wanted to get into Calculus II, I had to pass Calculus I, which was currently kicking my ass. But I had never been able to say no to Harley. We had just bought tickets for the screening of The Desolation of Smaug. There was no way she could have gone alone. Harley was only thirteen - soon to turn fourteen. I, on the other hand, was already eighteen and would be turning nineteen soon. While Harley was nearing the end of middle school, I was in my freshman year of college.

She was eagerly bouncing around as we walked toward the movie theater that connected to the mall. I arched a brow. "Since when did you even like The Hobbit?" I asked her curiously.

"Since always, Leah," Harley said huffily.

"Yeah? When's the last time you read The Hobbit?" I asked her.

"I've read it!"

"Me reading it to you to put you to sleep when you were five doesn't count."

"That's not what I was thinking of."

There was no way she'd ever read The Hobbit by herself. The only time she'd ever read it was when I had read it for her to try and put her to sleep. "Oh, yeah? Tell me then. Who dies in the Battle of the Five Armies?" I asked, knowing that she didn't have the slightest clue.

She probably didn't even remember what the Battle of the Five Armies was. "Umm…" Harley muttered.

"Mm-hmm. I thought so," I said.

"I want to see the dragon," Harley said suddenly.

But we both knew why she really wanted to see the movie. "Try again, smart ass. I know you won't ever tell Mom and Dad why you really want to see it, but you can tell me," I teased her. She frowned. Mom and Dad would have been furious if they knew why their precious little girl wanted to go see it. Definitely not for the dragon or the action. "I promise I'll only laugh a little."

Harley groaned, throwing her head back. "Do I really have to say it?"

"Since I'm paying for the tickets, yeah, you do," I said.

"Alright. Fine," Harley conceded, sounding extremely disappointed that I was going to force her to say it. "Those three are so hot!"

Now that was what I'd wanted to hear. "That's more like it," I giggled.

"You know that you agree with me," Harley said, shoving me.

All three of the men who played the characters from the line of Durin were extremely good-looking. I did agree with her on that much. "Yes, Harley, they are all very attractive men," I conceded. She grinned. "Do you even remember the character names?"

"Who cares about their names?" Harley huffed.

Harley was definitely getting more and more like me every day - a horrifying thought, really. "Thorin Oakenshield, Fili, and Kili. Just so you can at least pretend that you know what you’re talking about," I told her.

"Which one's the archer?" Harley asked.

"Kili," I answered.

"He's definitely the hottest," Harley said dreamily.

"On that much we're agreed," I said.

"Oh, really?"

"Really."

The dark hair and dark eyes. He was definitely handsome. "Do you know who he is?" Harley asked.

"Aidan Turner. The Irish actor," I answered.

"I knew that you were attracted to him!" Harley gasped suddenly, jumping up excitedly.

I grabbed her arm to keep her still. She was starting to draw attention to us. "I'm not going to hunt him down and stalk him, psycho," I told her. She scoffed at me. "He used to be on a show I liked. Being Human. I stopped watching after his character died."

Harley cringed, grabbing her chest. "Oh, I would cry if he died."

She was definitely in for a surprise in the next film. I grinned at her, knowing how upset Harley would be if I spoiled the ending for her. She used to always get so upset with me when I would accidentally give away endings that I knew from reading the books. But this would be good payback for when Harley was mad at me years ago. I had just gotten a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harley had torn the pages out because I had yelled at her. Our parents had ended up grounding her and forcing her to buy me a new copy. But that didn't change the fact that I'd never gotten her back.

"So… I probably shouldn’t spoil the ending for you," I said slowly.

"What are you talking about?" Harley asked curiously.

"Thought you didn't want me to spoil things for you?" I asked.

Harley stared at me for a moment before nodding her consent. "You're right. I don't want to know," she told me.

"All three of them die at the end!" I yelped.

Harley whipped around in horror as I began laughing. Payback is sweet... "Leah!" Harley shouted. I laughed even louder. "What the hell?"

"Watch your language, brat," I snapped. She rolled her eyes. "That was for ripping out the pages of The Deathly Hallows when I was trying to finish it!"

Harley's jaw dropped. "We were kids!"

"And now we're even."

"Ugh. I hate you."

"No, you don't."

"How do they die?" Harley asked.

"It's during the Battle of the Five Armies. Not described very well. Just kind of mentions that they died defending their uncle, who also dies in the battle," I told her. Honestly, it had been so long since I'd read it that I wasn't really sure if I was forgetting a part of it. "I'm sure that since they've made Azog more of a central character in the first one he'll have something to do with it."

"I can't believe I'll have to watch them die," Harley groaned.

"Well, you can live in peace knowing that Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman and Richard Armitage are still alive and well," I said.

"Who?"

My head whipped around to her. She couldn't put that much together? "Honestly, this is why you had to go to summer school last year," I said. She scowled at me. "You don't do your homework."

"Oh, shut up," Harley snapped. "I guess I'll just enjoy their beauty while I have it."

"Drama queen," I scoffed.

"Okay. So, you're telling me that you wouldn't take the chance to jump on that if you got it?" Harley asked.

She had surprised me so much that I dropped my phone. Harley stood with crossed arms as I picked it up and turned back to her, trying to force some color back into my face. "How many of my conversations with my friends have you overheard?" I asked slowly.

"A lot," Harley said. My face paled all over again. The last thing I wanted was my teenage sister hearing about my nightly exploits. "You guys aren't very quiet and the walls are really thin in our house."

"Oh, no," I groaned, putting my face in my hands. "Sorry, you had to hear that."

"I'm not," Harley replied, laughing. "I'm glad to hear that my stick-in-the-mud sister isn't such a stick-in-the-mud."

"I don't know where you came from. You're horrible."

"Says the one who snuck Mike into the house the other weekend."

My face paled again. We needed to get a house with thicker walls. Or one where the bedrooms were further apart. "If you tell Mom or Dad that happened, so help me I will kill you," I warned her.

"It's fine," Harley said, waving me off. "I think it's funny."

Which was exactly what was causing me an internal panic. The last thing I wanted was for Harley to do what I had been doing for the past few years. Of course, I could have been a much better role model for her as she'd grown up. So could our own parents, but that was another matter entirely. I rolled my eyes at myself as we walked past a large poster that was advertising The Desolation of Smaug. I smiled at the sight of the three Durin members standing in the center of the poster. Oh, yeah, I would have killed for a chance to be with Aidan Turner. Too bad he would never know I existed.

"Apparently they're going to have a romance in this one between Kili and that red-headed elf," Harley said, breaking my thoughts and pointing to a pretty woman on the top right of the poster.

It took me a moment to recognize her as Evangeline Lily. I smiled. I used to love Lost. "Deviation from the novel," I commented. As far as I could remember, there had been no character like her in the novel. "The fans won't like that."

Lord of the Rings fans were notoriously tough about any deviations from the source material. "I love those old-time-y romances," Harley said dreamily.

"They're cheesy," I responded.

Her jaw dropped. "You're heartless."

"I'm not heartless, Harley. I just get it. I've been around a little longer than you. Had more relationships," I said. Harley scoffed. She wasn't exactly wrong. I wasn't much for relationships. I preferred flings. But I'd had a few brief ones. "We're not in Victorian times anymore, kid. Romances like that don't exist anywhere outside of Jane Austen novels. They're sweet ideas. But all we can really hope for is… contentment."

Harley stared at me like I had lost my mind. "That's the least romantic sentiment I've ever heard."

"But it's probably the most realistic."

"Well, I'm still going to keep my hopes up for one."

"That's good."

One of us should have had the hope for a real-life romance. "I'll keep my hopes up for you to get one too," Harley said brightly.

"I'll let you know how that works out," I laughed.

"Bet you they'd know how to treat a girl," Harley said, motioning back to the poster.

"Too bad they're not real. Much like your imaginary relationship," I teased.

"Funny," Harley snapped.

She looked quite frustrated with me. What else was new, though? She was always frustrated with my lack of romantic interest. She was insistent on the fact that I would one day meet someone who meant the world to me. In the meantime, I laughed and wrapped an arm around my little sister. I had meant what I'd said. There wouldn't ever be a real relationship like that for me. Not that I would admit it to Harley, but that didn't mean that I would stop hoping for one. Maybe there would be one out there for me. I just knew that I also had to be realistic about those things.

Back in reality (kind of) I really did miss having Harley around. She was the one person that I had always been able to laugh and joke with. She had always been the one to make me laugh when no one else could. If there was someone I could have brought to Middle Earth with me, it would have been Harley. She could have even given Thorin a run for his money. But she also would have never dared leave Hobbiton. She was not the outdoorsy kind of person. But I still missed Harley more than I had ever missed someone in my life.

The good thing about the journey had been the fact that, even though I didn't have Harley, I did have Kili. But now I didn't even have him. I wished that I could have Kili back. Our old relationship. I missed that easy banter that we'd had between ourselves. This complete avoidance was so much stranger. Tenser. Even if the day ever came that we would be able to talk to each other again, I knew that we would never go back to the way we had once been. Plus, I was never going to be able to take watching him fall in love with Tauriel.

When I finally got sick of thinking about my ever-devolving relationship with Kili, I laid back and tried to force myself to go to sleep. I hadn't bothered going to tell any of the others and none of them came over to check on me. I had no interest in talking to them right now, anyway. I merely plopped down onto my bedroll and tried everything in my arsenal to get myself to go to sleep. It hadn't come easily in the past few days. It became obvious very quickly that it wouldn't come easily tonight either. 

As the hours passed and we moved into the middle hours of the evening, the rest of the company slowly began drifting off, each chirping their goodnight's to each other. I had managed to fall asleep for a little while, but I couldn't manage it any longer. It was colder tonight than I had been expecting. I was shivering from the cold air entering the cave. I had my cloak laying over me, but I was still freezing. So, I tried to focus on Kili's rune stone that I had clutched in my palms. Eventually, I heard footsteps stop over me. I didn't open my eyes. I knew who was on watch tonight.

He let out a soft breath as he stood over me. In the back of my mind, I prayed that he would either walk away or come lay with me. I felt him lean down over me. There was the quiet snap of a button. A moment later, his thick cloak fell around my body. I tried to fight back a smile - as I was still pretending to be asleep - as I curled myself into it. His hand gently brushed back my hair before he retracted it and walked away. I gave just the slightest smile. After everything the two of us had been through, he still cared for me.

When I woke up in the morning, I was surprised to see that Kili's cloak was still on my shoulders. For some reason, I had been so convinced that it was a dream. But it appeared that he really had given it to me while I had been pretending to be asleep. I smiled and threw it over my back. I knew that I should have given it back, but I wasn't quite prepared to hand it back. So, I wrapped it around my shoulders and moved about my day, hoping that he might look at me or ask for it back. He never even spared me a glance.

Nor did he for the rest of the day. I found myself absolutely furious that he wasn't even going to acknowledge the simple fact that he had given me the cloak. But how could I be surprised? This was what I deserved. By nightfall, I was positive that he wasn't going to ask for his cloak back. After some debating on my part, I decided to just give it back. So, I pulled the cloak off of my shoulders and walked over to him. He was sharpening his arrows. He barely looked up as I came to a stop in front of him.

"Thank you," I said, dropping the cloak at his feet.

"You're welcome," Kili replied tonelessly.

That went well... I started to walk away when something came over me. "Kili?" I asked.

"Yes?" Kili asked, finally looking up.

Unfortunately, that was also the same moment that I realized that I had nothing to say to him. "Umm… Nothing, sorry," I muttered dumbly.

"All right." Kili rose to his feet to walk away before stopping short. "Here."

He handed me a bowl of stew. "That's your dinner," I said.

"Take it. You haven't eaten yet," Kili said.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

Bombur had offered me food earlier but I hadn't accepted. I'd been too busy being stuck in my own head. Kili merely nodded before walking off. I took up the spot where he had just been. That wasn't even close to where I had wanted that conversation to go. I let out a little breath of disappointment as I began eating his leftovers. I hadn't eaten much lately because of my constant distractions. I knew that Kili was right to try and get me to eat more. But it had been hard. I didn't want to eat seeing as I still felt sick to my stomach over what I had done.

There was a shadow falling over me and I grinned. Was he back? "You still looked hungry," Bilbo's voice said.

I glanced up and tried to hide my disappointment that it wasn't Kili. Bilbo had brought me a full dinner. "Thank you," I said quietly.

Instead of walking off, Bilbo took a seat next to me. "You don't need to talk -"

"I don't want to," I interrupted.

The last thing I wanted was to talk about my stupid feelings. "That much, I figured," Bilbo said, smiling fondly at me. "But sometimes it does help to just have someone to sit with you."

He was right. I would have loved to have Kili with me right now, but I knew that a conversation with him was out of the question. But I had always enjoyed having Bilbo around. I smiled at him and shifted in the dirt slightly to sit next to him. He grabbed my hand tightly. I wasn't sure if Bilbo was like a brother, best friend, or father. Maybe a little bit of them all. What I did know was that I appreciated it. I leaned my head down against his shoulder as he tightened his grip on my hand. We remained hand-in-hand for a long time.

"Sorry for being pathetic," I said petulantly.

Bilbo gently pushed my head off of his shoulder. "You are many things, Leah Ambrose, but pathetic is not one of them," Bilbo told me. I scoffed. This wasn't exactly my proudest moment. "Trust me, what you are experiencing is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Thanks for sitting with me," I told him.

"Might I also offer advice?" Bilbo asked.

"Why not? My day can't get much worse," I said.

The only way things could have gotten worse would have been if I actually managed to walk off the edge of the mountain. "You have an independent streak that runs deeper than any I've ever seen before," Bilbo said. I smiled. That was the understatement of the century. "It's impressive, but it can also be slightly lonely. When you find someone who you're willing to let in, well, that's not something you'll find often."

"What if there's something else standing in the way?" I asked.

"What if that barrier only exists in your imagination?" Bilbo shot back.

My head snapped up from Bilbo's shoulder. He was still smiling at me. I stared at him for a long time. He clearly knew what I was referencing. He knew that I was concerned about the state of Kili's relationship with Thorin. I hadn't exactly made it a secret. If any of them looked close enough, they would know that their relationship was the main cause of concern in my mind. Bilbo was bringing up a good point, though. Was there a chance that he was right? Was this really a problem that I was making up in my own head?

It was a question that racked my brain constantly over the next few days. Was I making a mountain out of a molehill? Those days had become quite monotonous without me even getting a chance to exchange some conversation with Kili. Unlike our time in Rivendell, we didn't even speak to each other. There wasn't even the slightest awkward comment exchanged. I didn't even meet eyes with him most of the time. I just stared down at the runestone for the bulk of my days, trying to remember that promise. He would come back to me.

Outside of my relationship with Kili, I knew that something unexpected might happen - it was in the name of the film, after all - and I hardly dared to hope that we would pass without fearful adventure over the great tall mountains with lonely peaks and valleys where no king ruled. But, somehow, we did not. There was no danger out here. The only exception to that was the occasional nasty storm or blast of cold weather. It seemed like we might make it out of the mountains relatively unscathed.

All was well, until one day we met a horrible thunderstorm - more than a thunderstorm, a thunder-battle. It seemed like the thunder and lightning were trying to outdo each other. It was like two great thunderstorms were meeting and clashing. My body was shaking with nerves. The thunder and lightning in the mountains were terrifying. The lightning was splintering on the peaks, the rocks shivered, and great crashes split the air and went rolling and tumbling into every cave and hollow. The darkness - despite being the middle of the day - was filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light.

There was no way that we could stop here for the afternoon. There didn't even seem to be a cave that we could hide out in. We just tried to hold onto each other and pray that we would all come out of this alive. Even living in Florida, I had never seen or imagined anything of this kind of storm. We were high up in a narrow place, with a dreadful fall into a dim valley at one side of us. The mountain was on the other. We were trying to shelter under a hanging rock for the afternoon, and most of us were laying beneath our blankets, shaking from head to toe.

This was the kind of weather that none of us could handle. It didn't take long for us to realize that we would be killed out here. We needed to find much better shelter than this. But caves in the Misty Mountains were few and far between. It didn't help that the trail before us was narrow and dangerous. There were just a few feet between the cliff and the sheer drop that we could walk on. The fierce storm didn't seem to take long to set in and we quickly decided that we needed to find a cave. The lightning and rain never let up.

The storm was almost impossible to see through. Thorin led the way, with everyone else following close behind. I was standing just behind Kili, barely able to see him. This was the first time that I had stood anywhere near him in days. But he was keeping me pressed firmly against him. It was just like I had thought the other night. He might have been upset and hurt over what I had said, but he would always protect and care for me. He kept my hand locked in his, seeing as I couldn't make out where the ledge began and ended. He probably feared that I would walk off the edge of the mountain.

"Hold on!" Thorin yelled back to us.

He was trying to pull himself past a rock that was jutting out into the path. My heart sank into my stomach. We were going to fall to our deaths. I was sure of it. I had just passed that part of the rock - with Kili's assistance - when I turned back to see the ledge give way underneath Bilbo's feet. Everyone began screaming as he started to plummet forward into the chasm. Dwalin just barely managed to grab him by the straps of the backpack to yank him back onto the path.

"We must find shelter!" Thorin yelled.

"Watch out!" Dwalin bellowed.

What else could have been happening? Wasn't this bad enough? We all looked up to see a massive boulder hurtling through the air toward us. Oh, good, like my day hasn't been going badly enough already... The boulder smashed into the mountainside above us and shattered into a million little pieces. We all sank back against the mountain as the shards of rocks - some small and sharp as a knife, others big enough to crush a car underneath them - came careening down around us.

My scream was drowned out by the others' and the thundering of the cascading rocks. I had finally realized what was going on. With a little hint of horror, I realized that I had been so upset over what had been going on with Kili that I had completely forgotten that we were about to walk into the thunder-battle between the Stone Giants. I couldn't believe that I hadn't managed to get myself worked up over this. This was one of the earlier parts of the movie that I had been the most afraid to have to face.

Balin stepped forward. "This is no thunderstorm; it's a thunder battle! Look!"

At that moment, one of the Stone Giants reared up from a nearby mountain. It pulled itself free of the mountainside and looked back down at where it had just come from. My stomach knotted itself in circles as I tried to wrack my brain for the memory of what happened during the thunder battle. No one died, but... but, what? What happened? The Stone Giant ripped off a massive boulder from the top of the mountain it had just come from and I gasped. That didn't bode well for us.

"Well bless me, the legends are true. Giants; Stone Giants!" Bofur shouted over the storm.

Okay... This was one of those moments when I was extremely pissed that I was in Middle Earth and not having my stomach pumped. I wasn't prepared for shit like this! When I peeped out in the lightning-flashes past Kili's shoulder, I saw that the Stone Giants were all across the valley. Off in the distance, it looked like there was a number more. At least those ones seemed to be far away. They were hurling rocks at one another for a game and catching them, tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below or splintered into little bits with a bang.

Then came the harsh wind and rain. I gasped as the weather made a turn for the worst. The wind whipped the rain and the hail about in every direction so that an overhanging rock was now serving as no protection at all. Soon we were all completely drenched. There was no way that we could just wait here. But where could we go? We were surrounded on all sides. We could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides. Anywhere we went would be no safer.

"Take cover: you'll fall!" Thorin shouted.

"Hold on!" Dwalin yelled.

The first Stone Giant grasped the boulder that it had pulled free from the mountain tightly in its arms and tossed it through the air. A second Stone Giant appeared from behind us and the free-flying boulder whacked it in the head. The Stone Giant stumbled back as pieces of the stone came tumbling down the mountainside. The dwarves were all yelling at each other to brace for impact and hold on; at that moment, the path beneath our feet began to give way from all of the vibrations and the impact of the falling rocks.

We all stepped back against the cliff - as close to it as we could. Much to my horror, the ground between the company split. Right... That's what happens next... "What's happening?" Kili asked breathlessly.

"Kili!" Fili yelled to his brother. "Grab my hand! Ki..."

In the meantime, I had finally realized that I was stuck right where the rock was splitting. Do something, dumb-ass! I screamed. Not that... "Get over here!" Kili snarled at me.

Of all of the times for me to become completely useless, this was a terrible time. Thankfully, Kili was paying a lot more attention than I was. He grabbed my arm and tightened his grip, yanking me onto his side of the mountain. I stumbled into him stupidly as I watched the two sides of the company split further and further apart. We all stared at each other desperately. Fili and Kili were staring at each other with such desperation that it broke my heart. They were terrified that they might not ever be next to each other again.

At the moment, so was I. I looked up to see that we had somehow gotten stuck on the knees of the Stone Giant that was now coming out of the mountainside. We all looked up. At that moment, the first Stone Giant smashed his head into the head of the one we were standing on. Our Stone Giant stumbled back from the hit. Kili pressed a hand around my hip and pushed me back against the mountain. As our Stone Giant collapsed to the side, the dwarves on the other knee screamed as they smashed into the mountain. I could hear Thorin yelling for them to move.

On our side of the Stone Giant, we all yelled at them to keep moving. Unfortunately, we were having no such luck. The moment that they were clear of the knee, the Stone Giant got back up and continued the fight. It lashed out at the second Stone Giant but missed. The first managed to hook ours in the stomach. We were just barely able to avoid the fist. Our Stone Giant sent an uppercut to the first, which managed to knock that one flat onto its back. Well, if I ever made it back home, I would have to remember that one.

Just as I was thinking that a third Stone Giant appeared and threw a boulder at the head of another of the Giants. The head was knocked free and crashed into the stomach of ours. We screamed as the rocks were knocked over us. Unfortunately, our Giant had managed to lose its footing during the fight. It stumbled back, sending us careening past the rest of the company. Our Giant began stumbling toward a mountain. All I could see was the mountainside coming closer and closer. So, this is how I'll die, huh?

"No!" Thorin bellowed.

As the rocks crashed together, I began screaming at the top of my lungs. The rational part of my brain was trying to remind myself that the dwarves survived this, but I couldn't think straight. Plus, I hadn't been there before. At the impact, we were all thrown on top of each other. I grunted in pain and surprise as I was smashed into the rocks below. My skin took a number of hits as I managed to get cut and banged up by the rocks. Once my head stopped spinning from the fall, I realized that Kili had covered my body with his. He was trying to protect me. Just as he always did.

Was it over? Were we dead? Was I dead? Somehow, I wasn't. We had all survived. At the moment, I laid with Kili on the rocks. Our legs were tangled together, both of us breathing heavily. Knowing that we were relatively safe now, I pressed my head back against the stone in relief. Kili leaned down and pressed his forehead down against my shoulder. We were both gasping for air. Kili slowly leaned up and pressed a hand behind my neck, pulling my head closer to his. He kept our bodies pressed firmly against each other.

"Are you alright?" Kili asked.

My voice was lodged in my throat. I couldn't force out real words. "Huh..." I whined.

"No! Kili!" Thorin's voice echoed desperately.

Oh, yeah. I'd almost forgotten that the others would think that we had died. But I couldn't force myself to say anything. I was trapped in Kili's eyes. His hands were wrapped tightly around the back of my neck. Our mouths were mere inches from each other. Now was probably a bad time to kiss him. But... Before I got the chance, the Stone Giant we had just fallen from fell backward off of the mountain and down deep into the chasm. The rest of the company came dashing around the corner, halting dead in their tracks when they realized that we were, miraculously, spared from any harm.

I'd never seen Thorin look so relieved as when he caught sight of Kili. "We're all right! We're alive!" Balin yelled to the others.

The company all slowly began rising to their feet. I was still too stunned to move. Thankfully, Kili made the first move. He jumped up off of me and gave me a hand up. I weakly rose to my feet. I was so shocked and horrified by what had almost just happened that I lunged forward and wrapped him in a tight hug. He didn't hesitate before his arms wound back around my own body. His hands dug into my skin as I breathed into his ear. I wasn't worried about the state of our relationship right now. I was just glad that we were both safe. I was glad that he still cared about me.

"Where's Bilbo?" Bofur called, startling me out of my reverie. I stumbled out of Kili's grasp. What had happened to Bilbo? "Where's the Hobbit?"

This part I remembered just fine. "Bilbo!" I screamed.

"There!" Ori yelped.

"Get him!" Dwalin howled.

We all turned back from where we had crash-landed to see that Bilbo was hanging onto the edge of the cliff. His fingertips were just barely hooked around the edge of the cliff. Another few seconds and he would fall. Everyone began screaming for Bilbo to hang on as they began diving for him. Much to my surprise, Ori was the first to dive for him. He tried to grab Bilbo's arm but was slightly too slow. Bilbo lost his grip on the mountainside and slipped, falling another few feet before managing to catch another handhold.

At this point, we had all begun screaming even louder. We had to hurry before Bilbo permanently lost his grip. Bilbo was gripping on with one hand as the other reached up for one of the dwarves' hands. Eventually, Thorin gave up and swung down on the cliff next to Bilbo. He wrapped a hand around Bilbo's coat and tossed him up to safety. Just as the others grabbed onto Bilbo, Thorin lost his grip on the cliff. Dwalin was just barely able to grab his hand and slowly, with much effort, pull him back to safety. Everyone was leaning back against the rocks, panting with effort and exhaustion.

"I thought we'd lost our burglar," Dwalin said, helping Thorin back to his feet.

"He's been lost ever since he left home," Thorin snarled, looking back at Bilbo. "He should never have come. He has no place among us."

Finally, I couldn't take the way that Thorin was speaking to us any longer. "Hey!" I snapped, pulling completely out of Kili's grasp. The others whipped around to me. "Just because he doesn't wield a sword or know how to fight with battles doesn't mean that he's useless on this adventure."

Thorin stormed up to me. "I didn't ask you."

"I don't care. You don't always have to be an asshole just because you don't agree with everyone," I hissed.

He looked like he might have been prepared to hit me. Before he got the chance, Balin pushed his way in between us. "This is not the time or place for this!" he yelled at the two of us. "We need shelter."

But it was a long time before either one of us stepped away from each other. I had half a mind to punch Thorin dead in the eye. Thorin was standing extremely close to me as I glared at him and he glared at me. Neither one of us wanted to be the one to bend first. Right now, I genuinely hated Thorin. He was such a jerk to everyone. He had been an ass to both Bilbo and me for the entire journey. Between my gender and relationship with his nephew, there would never be any way to get him to like me. So, I might as well have just been an ass about the entire thing.

"Dwalin!" Thorin barked.

Right now, we were all scowling at each other. No one was particularly happy with each other or with the situation. I glared at Thorin for another few seconds before he finally became the first one to cave. He gave me another sharp scowl before turning away to search for another cave. I glanced back long enough to see that Fili was helping Bombur back to his feet. Kili gently laid a hand on my lower back, pushing me off as we went searching for a suitable cave to hide out in for the night. It didn't take long for us to realize that we needed to find shelter quickly.

"This won't do at all! If we don't get blown off, or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up by some Stone Giant and kicked sky-high for a football," Thorin yelled irritably.

"Well, if you know of anywhere better, take us there!" Balin growled, who was feeling very grumpy and was far from happy about the Stone Giants himself.

Of course, we were all very upset about how things had gone. It had gone from being just some rather annoying rain and wind and lightning to a near-death experience with the Stone Giants. Yes, this hadn't been what any of us had wanted. There was a vaguely long period where we all snapped back and forth with each other about where to go and what would be the most suitable place to hide out for the night. The end of the argument was that Thorin and Balin sent Fili and Kili to look for a better shelter.

They were the best ones to go, after all. They had very sharp eyes and being the youngest of the dwarves by some fifty years they usually got those sort of jobs. Mostly because everybody could see that it was absolutely no use sending Bilbo. Especially now, seeing as Bilbo was way too shaken up to do anything. There was nothing like looking if you wanted to find something (or so Thorin said to his nephews). You would certainly usually find something if you looked, but it was not always quite the something you were after. So it proved on that occasion.

Soon after, Fili and Kili came crawling back, holding on to the rocks in the wind. "We have found a dry cave not far around the next corner. We'll all be able to fit," Fili yelled to us.

"Have you thoroughly explored it?" Thorin asked, who knew that caves up in the mountains were seldom unoccupied.

"Yes, yes!" they both yelled.

Though we all knew they could not have been long about it; they had come back too quick. “It isn't all that big, and it does not go far back," Kili said.

That was fine by me. I wanted out of this damn place. As I would realize later, that, of course, was the dangerous part about caves: you didn't know how far they went back, sometimes, or where a passage behind may have led to, or what was waiting for you inside. But now Fili and Kili's news seemed good enough. None of us wanted to be out here. So, we all got up and prepared to move. The wind was howling and the thunder still growling, and we had a business getting ourselves along. Still, it was not very far to go, and before long we came to a big rock standing out into the path.

Once we stepped behind, there was a low arch in the side of the mountain. There was just room to get the tallest of us through with a squeeze. It was tough. If I was a few inches taller, it would have been impossible. As we passed under the arch, it was good to hear the wind and the rain outside instead of all about us. We finally felt safe from the Stone Giants and their rocks. But the others were taking no risks. They began exploring the cave from end to end. I would have used my magical spell for light, but none of the others even knew I had magic yet. It seemed to be the wrong time to tell them.

The cave seemed quite a fair size, but not too large and mysterious. It had a dry floor and some comfortable nooks. At one end there was room for us, and there we stood (mighty glad of the change) steaming, and champing in our nosebags. All I wanted right now was a warm fire to rest by. We spread out our wet things on the floor and got dry ones out of our bundles. Afterward, we made our blankets comfortable, the dwarves got out their pipes and blew smoke rings, which I wished Gandalf was around to turn into different colors and set dancing up by the roof to amuse us.

That much I remembered from the books. I missed the old wizard. Thorin and Dwalin, who had still been exploring the cave, came back with scowls on their faces. "It looks safe enough," Dwalin said.

"Search to the back; caves in mountains are seldom unoccupied," Thorin ordered again.

Dwalin did a quick search of the back of the cave with a lantern. "There's nothing here," Dwalin told Thorin.

Gloin dropped a bundle of wood on the floor - from where he got the wood, I had no idea - and rubbed his hands together. "Right then! Let's get a fire started."

"No. No fires, not in this place," Thorin said, shooting down the idea instantly. "Get some sleep. We start at first light."

"We were to wait in the mountains until Gandalf joined us," Balin told Thorin. They must have decided on that meetup when I was mourning my relationship with Kili. "That was the plan."

"Plans change," Thorin told Balin. "Bofur, take the first watch."

There was a tense silence that followed. I was definitely eager to get out of this place but I also wanted to wait for Gandalf. Wouldn't that have been the best idea? Everyone settled into their spots soon after. I found myself trembling head to toe. I had completely forgotten about the Stone Giant attack. But I was sure that it would have been even more frightening if I had known. Much like my anticipation of the trolls. But it would have helped to have Kili to bounce ideas off of with my fear. Unwilling to think about the attack any longer, I sat on the ground and twirled an arrow in my hand.

It was a little while later that Oin took a spot next to me. I smiled at him. "My dear," Oin greeted. I smiled at him. "Might I see that cut?"

"Excuse me?" I asked.

Since when had I gotten a cut? "On your forehead," Oin said, motioning upward. "Likely from the Stone Giant fight."

I raised a hand to my forehead and brushed over the raised skin. When I pulled away, there was blood there. I glanced up to Oin in surprise. "Oh, I didn't even realize that I was cut," I said dumbly. "Yeah, please, go ahead."

It must have come from when some of the boulders had gotten knocked loose during the Stone Giant fight. I hadn't really noticed, considering the fact that I had spent most of the time screaming, thinking that I would be flattened against the mountain. I sat on the edge of a rock that I had positioned myself on earlier as Oin worked at the cut on my forehead. A few times, I twitched from the pain. He ended up giving me a few stitches and washed out the wound. I smiled at him gratefully as he worked at my pathetic injury.

"You're all set," Oin said after a few minutes.

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

"Come back to me tomorrow morning and I'll clean the wound out again for you."

"Will do."

"Are you feeling alright otherwise?"

"Surprisingly, I am. Physically, at least," I added quietly.

Why did you say that, you fool? Instead of laughing at me, Oin smiled. "Unfortunately, my dear, I believe that there's only one person who can genuinely help you on that front," he said.

"Unfortunately, Oin, I think you're right," I agreed.

"My advice wouldn't be very helpful for that conversation," Oin said, chuckling.

"Oh, I understand. I'm not very helpful with that conversation myself," I said, laughing along with him. "Thanks for noticing the cut, by the way."

"Actually, my dear, I didn't notice. Someone pointed it out," Oin said.

"Who?" I asked curiously.

"Who do you think?" Oin offered.

There was only one person that I assumed would have even noticed the minor injury and pointed it out. I turned to look back at Kili. His brown eyes flitted away from mine. Yes, he had definitely just been looking at me. By now, his eyes were fixed firmly back on his arrows. He was sharpening the arrowheads, much like I had been doing before. I shook my head, trying to push back a smile. Naturally, it was he who had noticed that I was injured. Oin patted me on the knee politely before standing up and heading back over to Gloin.

At least someone was paying attention because I certainly wasn't. I gave Oin a slightly awkward smile as I dropped back down against my bedroll. I put all of my things away, tossing them into the corner of the cave, before getting ready to settle in for the night. I would never know how to have even the simplest conversations with Kili. I had just hummed stupidly earlier, after all. I was certain that our relationship would never end up going anywhere. There was no use in even thinking that the two of us could ever have that conversation. That ship had sailed.

The other dwarves talked and talked, and forgot about the storm, and discussed what each would do with his share of the treasure (when we got it, which at the moment did not seem so impossible). I noticed that Thorin was one of the first to drop off to sleep. He must have still been upset from what had happened earlier. Bilbo also didn't seem to be up to talking. He was definitely upset from his near-death experience. I didn't blame him in the slightest. After a little while, we began dropping off to sleep one by one.

With Thorin now asleep, the watches were reassigned. Bofur had asked someone to switch the earliest shift so that he could take the one in the middle of the night. I didn't know why. That was the most miserable one. He leaned back against the edge of the cave so that he could get an hour or so of sleep. I was about to drop down against the ground to go to sleep when I saw the shadow of someone's boots heading over to me. I glanced up to see that Kili was standing over me. He took a seat on the rock a few feet from me. I sat up in my bedroll.

"Are you alright?" Kili asked.

He was definitely referencing our near deaths in the Stone Giant attack. "Thank you," I said suddenly.

"What?" Kili asked, baffled.

"Thank you. I never said thank you after you saved me during the Stone Giant attack," I said, remembering that I hadn't told him that earlier.

"I just did what I knew was right."

"Kili -"

But Kili wasn't in the mood to talk about that. "You don't owe me an explanation, Leah. You don't," Kili told me. My voice lodged itself in my throat. I did owe him one. "I had no right to hold you up to the things we said in the cave that night. You said it yourself. It was just that one night."

Where had someone like him even come from? He deserved everything good in life. He was such a sweetheart. He believed the best in everyone. He even believed the best in me after everything that we had been through. My stomach churned in knots at the look on Kili's face. It wasn't just that one night for me. I wanted it to be for good. I never wanted it to end. I so desperately wanted to tell Kili the truth, but I knew that it would put us right back to square one. So, I nodded at him sadly.

"I'm sorry you didn't save it for someone special," I whispered quietly.

"I did," Kili said, giving me a longing stare. "I only wish she returned the sentiment."

He walked off before I got the chance to say anything else and I stared sadly after him. "She does," I whispered.

Please have heard me. Please turn around and say something. I hoped so desperately that he would turn around and meet my eyes. But he didn't. His eyes remained firmly locked on his feet as he walked off. I couldn't believe that this had happened to us. What had happened to those two people who had adored each other? I missed my friend. I missed everything about us. Long minutes passed before I finally realized that Kili wasn't going to look at me. Not now and not anytime soon. So, I stared down at my feet sadly.

It was a brief time before I laid down and got ready to go to sleep. It had been a long day and I was ready for a decent sleep - even though I was sure that I wouldn't get one. I had my eyes closed, hoping that the others would think that I was asleep. Fili and Kili were on first watch tonight. They had the shortest one. Only two hours. Bofur would be taking the longest shift in the middle of the night. I didn't want them to think that they would have to keep quiet just because they knew that I felt awkward about everything.

"Stop," Fili said suddenly.

My brows knitted. "What are you on about?" Kili asked his brother.

"What you just said to her, Fili explained. "Kili, you're punishing her for something -"

"She can control it," Kili muttered.

My stomach flipped. He wasn't wrong about that. "You're not making things easier on her. Look at things from her side," Fili reasoned. "If she's with you, that makes her happy. But she knows that Thorin will be unhappy and, like it or not, that will affect your relationship with him. The way she sees it, it will also affect her relationship with you. She'll always feel guilty. She's trying to convince herself that this is the right thing to do. You making little jabs at her like that or simply ignoring her are not making things easier."

Kili was silent for a long time before he finally said, "It slipped out."

"I know. But she doesn't."

Actually, I did. But that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. "What would you suggest I do?" Kili asked.

"I would suggest that you try and talk to her. Get a real answer out of her. Don't just assume that she doesn't want you two to work out," Fili said. I smiled to myself, glad that he was talking to Kili, exactly as I had asked him not to do. "Try and talk to her. Talk things out."

"I thought we talked things out in the cave," Kili said regretfully.

"You did. Then Thorin put in his word in."

"What do you think?" Kili asked.

The two had another brief silence. "I think that I've never seen you as serious about someone as you are about Leah," Fili said. I couldn't help it. I smiled at him. That was how I felt about it. "To me, it's quite obvious how you both feel. What astounds me is that neither one of you seem to feel that way. I hope that it works out between you. I'm very fond of Leah."

And I was fond of Fili. "Yes. As am I. I just... I need to figure out what I want to tell her. How to... go about what conversation. She gets so defensive," Kili said. He wasn't wrong about that. "It can be hard to really get her to open up."

"Do what you did that night in the cave," Fili said. I was extremely grateful that I managed to not snort. Yeah, I would have definitely liked to do that again. "Get her away from everyone. Let her have some time to relax into the conversation. But when it comes time to speak to her about it, don't let her steer the conversation anywhere else. Make it clear that this is a conversation that you both need to have."

Both of the brothers were people who I couldn't believe were real. They always had everyone's best interests at heart. Especially mine. This time there was a long silence between us. I was so desperate for them to keep talking. I wanted to hear more. I wanted to know how he was going to decide to have that conversation with me. I wanted to know if he was really planning on talking to me about this. My heart fluttered slightly. I wanted to know more about what they were talking about. Was he planning on talking to me even more? I was both elated and terrified of the thought.

"If you ever question just how much she wants you to keep trying for her... maybe you should take a look at what she's hanging onto," Fili said quietly.

Maybe I was getting way too predictable. There was another long silence between the brothers. I stared at the sand for a moment before realizing that I was holding onto the runestone. That was what Fili had been talking about. I had almost forgotten that I was holding onto it. My heart jumped into my stomach. I thought about putting the stone down but changed my mind at the last minute. After all, it had just become a habit for me to hang onto the runestone while I slept. It reminded me of the times that we had slept together before everything had changed.

"Goodnight, nadadith," Fili said quietly, leaving Kili to his thoughts.

"Goodnight, nadad," Kili responded softly.

There was a soft scuffling as boots. I knew that the two of them would be getting ready to go back to bed, as Bofur would be taking up the night watch soon. I could hear Fili take his spot in his bedroll almost immediately. But Kili's footsteps took a little longer. I snapped my eyes shut as I heard his feet come to a stop in front of me. I didn't know what happened but he stood over me for a few moments before turning and leaving. But not before I felt a soft fabric fall over me. It was his cloak. Again. I smiled and curled myself into it.

Despite wanting to talk to Kili, I knew that now was the wrong time. So, I forced myself to go to bed, the runestone still locked in my hands with Kili's cloak wrapped around my body. Unfortunately, with all that had been happening between Kili and my attempt to wind down after the Stone Giant attack, I had barely remembered that tonight would be the last time that any of us would use the packages, baggage, tools, and paraphernalia that we had brought with us from Rivendell.


End file.
